UR ARABY 



-?^><.^>^ 






^ 



I^^-::ft*&i«-l' 



ANDTHB 

GARDEN OF THB SUI^ 

fJ.SMBATON CHASE 







Class. 



.Flki 



Book:Pl^C4T 
Copyright 1^^ 



CQEmiCHT OEFOBin 



(itijpr ISnnka bg 31. ^mpatnn (EljaBp 

CALIFORNIA DESERT TRAILS: with Ap- 
pendix of Plants, also Hints on Desert 
Travelling. Illustrated. 

CALIFORNIA COAST TRAILS: A Horseback 
Ride from Mexico to Oregon. Illustrated. 

YOSEMITE TRAILS: Camp and Pack-Train 
in the Yosemite Region of the Sierra 
Nevada. Illustrated. 

CONE-BEARING TREES OF THE CALI- 
FORNIA MOUNTAINS. Illustrated. 

Sg 31. ^tttpaton <£-i\aBt aub 
(Eijarlpa 3Franria'^auttbpr3 

THE CALIFORNIA PADRES AND THEIR 
MISSIONS. Illustrated. 



OUR ARABY 




A VISTA IN OUR ARABY: MT. SAN JACINTO IN THE 
BACKGROUND 



OUR ARABY: 

PALM SPRINGS 

AND THE 

THE GARDEN OF THE SUN 



J. SMEATON CHASE 



Illustrated from Photographs by the Author: 
WITH A DESCRIPTIVE LIST OF DESERT PLANTS, ETC. 

AND 

HINTS TO DESERT MOTORISTS: 

ALSO 

A NEW MAP OF THE REGION 
BY THE U. S. GEOLOGICAL SURVEY 



PRINTED FOR 

J. SMEATON CHASE, PALM SPRINGS, CALIFORNIA 

BY STAR-NEWS PUBLISHING COMPANY 

PASADENA, CALIFORNIA 

1920 






Copyright 1920 by J. Smeaton Chase 
All Rights Reserved 



OEC 28 1920 
^CI.A605137 



/ 



FOREWORD 

THE LATE Charles Dudley Warner used to 
apply to Southern California the term "Our 
Italy." The territory described in the follow- 
ing pages may certainly be better designated Our 
Araby; and just as Italy attracts many travellers 
while Arabia appeals to few, so of the multitude of 
Californians and California tourists, not many, 
relatively, are likely to wish to visit the desert: and 
this is fortunate, for if too much peopled its charm 
would be lost. 

This little book is designed to serve three ends: 
to invite people of the right kind — not too many — 
to a region that is meant for the discerning few; to 
help them while here to enjoy it to the full; and to 
please them, when they have departed, with recol- 
lections of things thought and felt, seen and done, 
in a tract of country wholly out of the ordinary. 

It is hoped that the United States Geological 
Survey map, supplied in the back of the book, will 
be found a useful adjunct. Being the only official 
map yet issued which is complete of the locality 
dealt with, it meets a definite need. The writer has 
pleasure in acknowledging the courtesy of the 
Survey in granting permission to reproduce it, and 
also to reprint from one of their valuable publica- 
tions the Hints to Motorists which will be found in 
the Appendix. He is under obligations also to 



Foreword 

Professor Joseph Grinnell, of the Museum of Verte- 
brate Zoology of the University of California, for 
aid in revising the lists of birds and mammals. 



CONTENTS 

I. Palm Springs: Its Situation and SurrouiNdings 11 

II. The Village ________ _ _ 17 

III. The Indians ___________ 22 

IV. Amusements __________ 25 

V. Trips to the Canons and Other Notable Points 39 

VI. Flora and Fauna _________ 52 

VII. Noticeable Plants of the Desert _ _ _ _ 56 

VIII. Climate and Health ________ 72 

IX. Accommodation and Conveniences 

AND How to Come ________ 79 

Appendix: Hints to Motorists _____ 82 



ILLUSTRATIONS 

A Vista in Our Araby: Mt. San Jacinto 

in the Background ______ Frontispiece -" 

A Palm-Loved Pool in the Garden of the Sun _ 14 '- 

Palm Springs Indians at Home _______ 22 «- 

The Palms of Our Araby ________ 30* 

"The Moonlight Sonata" ________ 38 

From a painting by Mr. Carl Eytel, Palm Springs 

At Two-Bunch Palms: Mt. San Gorgonio 

IN the Distance __________ 50 - 

The Biznaga, a Strange Inhabitant of the 

Garden of the Sun _________ 58 "^^ 

The Ocotillo and Palo Verde _______ 66 ^'' 

A Shady Lane at Palm Springs ______ 1\^ 



OUR ARABY 

I. PALM SPRINGS: ITS SITUATION 
AND SURROUNDINGS 

MOUNT SAN JACINTO stands isolated and 
conspicuous, like another Shasta, at the 
southern end of the great Sierra which 
forms the backbone of California. To south and 
west the great mountain faces a land diversified 
with hill and valley, farm and cattle-range, stretch- 
ing to the Mexican line and the Pacific: to north 
and east it looks steeply down upon a strange sun- 
blanched land, the pale, mysterious desert. From 
its topmost crags, garnished with storm-wrenched 
pines, to the gray levels where palm-fronds quiver 
under torrid blasts of sun there is a fall of over two 
miles of altitude within an air-line distance but 
three miles greater; from which it may be gathered 
(as is indeed the fact) that this desert face of San 
Jacinto offers to the view a mountain wall unparal- 
leled for its conjunction of height and verticality 
— in effect, a vast precipice of ten thousand feet. 

Right at the mountain's eastern foot, where the 
red rock-slabs rise sharply from the grav desert 
floor, lies the village of Palm Springs. Geographi- 
cally it is a village unique. One might well call it 
the child of the mountain, for it lives in the moun- 



12 Our Araby 

tain's protection and is nourished out of its veins. 
Two streams of purest water here break from San 
Jacinto's rocky heart, and make possible this Garden 
of the Sun, an oasis of pleasant life where Nature 
had said no life should be except the hard, wild life 
of her desert children — the plants and animals and 
Indians of a land of drought. 

The village lies at an elevation of 452 feet above 
sea-level, well toward the foot of the long gradient 
which runs, smooth as a waterline for league on 
league, from the summit of San Gorgonio Pass — 
the gateway and dividing point between California 
Green and California Gray — down to the great 
depression where dreams the Salton, that pale, 
weird Lake-below-the-Sea which came into being 
(whether for the tenth or hundredth time, who 
knows?) some fifteen years or so ago when the 
Colorado River took a fancy to stretch his watery 
limbs wider in the sun. Bounding this gradient on 
the north and east runs the level wall of the east- 
ward extension of San Jacinto's twin mountain, San 
Bernardino, beyond which wall there is a twin 
desert, the Mojave. The low narrow scoop, six to 
ten miles wide, which lies between mountain and 
mountain, forming a westerly arm of the Colorado 
Desert, was marked on old maps as the Cahuilla 
(Ka-we'-ah) Valley, but is now known as the 
Coachella — a meaningless substitution — and has of 
late years become famous as a sort of Little Arabia, 
the source of the earliest of figs, grapes, melons, 
and asparagus, and especially of those latest and 



Palm Springs 13 

best of horticultural novelties, American-grown 
dates — whoever has not tried them should lose no 
time. In its snug elbow at the head of this valley 
lies our little oasis. I named it unique, and make 
no apologies for the word. 

Walled up thus and all but overhung on the west 
by the moimtain, what kind of landscape is it that 
spreads north, east, and south from Palm Springs? 
Strangely, it is one that fascinates by reason of its 
apparent lack of interest. Looked at in the large, 
one might even call it dreary, this gray level, tree- 
less and waterless, dotted over with small shrubs 
and herbage so monotonously alike as to seem 
machine-made: a wholesale kind of land, all of a 
piece for leagues at a stretch. Yet this is the land 
which, if not at first view yet on very short acquaint- 
ance, lays hold of you with a charm so deep and 
strong that it has passed into a catch-phrase — the 
lure of the desert. Explain it how you may (or 
give it up for unexplainable, as most people do,) 
there it undoubtedly is, and none but the most 
unresponsive of mankind can escape or deny it. 
Unless you are one of those it will surely "get 
you," given the chance, and you will find yourself, 
without knowing how or why, a Companion of the 
Most Ancient Order of Lovers of the Desert, an 
Order which far outranks Masonry in age, and 
might claim Ishmael or Esau, possibly even Nim- 
rod, for its founder. 

But I was going to describe a few main features 
of Palm Springs' outlook. One's attention is at once 



14 Our Araby 

attracted to two great hills of sand which rise in 
smooth, dome-like contour a few miles straight 
ahead, that is, to the east. The larger is, I should 
guess, five hundred feet or so high, the smaller 
much less, and both probably represent outlying 
rocky foothills which, forming obstructions in the 
path of the wind that blows down the Pass, have in 
course of ages become submerged under the slow, 
all-obliterating tide of wind-driven sand. There is 
something queerly fascinating about these dunes. 
It may be partly the tricks of light and shade, the 
chameleon-like play of color which they exhibit; 
but there is some subtler quality, too. Perhaps 
there is aroused by the sight of that heap of sand- 
atoms a geological instinct akin to the sense of 
infinitude which is raised by the inconceivable 
figures of astronomy; or perhaps one's sense of 
curiosity is touched, and subconsciously one won- 
ders what may be hidden under that blanket of sand 
that defies the eye with its suave, unrevealing out- 
line. However it be, there is something about the 
great dunes that stamps them strongly on the mind. 
Turning to the south the view takes in a sort of 
bay or backwater — barring the water — of mountain- 
enclosed desert which may be considered as Palm 
Springs' private back-yard. Into it open the four 
canons which are Palm Springs' pride, viz: Tah- 
quitz, Andreas, Murray, and Palm, the last three 
being the scenic cream of Our Araby, and notable 
especially for their remarkable display of the 
native California palm. It is this tract which it is 




A PALM-LOVED luoi, l\ llll. i.AltDEN OF THE SUN 



Palm Springs 15 

now proposed to set aside as a National Park, and 
a striking addition it will be to the splendid list of 
American Wonderlands. This bay, or pocket, 
enclosed on three sides by mountains, forms, as it 
were, a neat little compendium or miniature of the 
greater desert, while Santa Rosa's fine bulk, over- 
looking it in the background, gives it even an extra 
touch of pictorial completeness. And when, in 
winter and spring, the snowy maltese cross shines 
on the mountain's forehead, we of Palm Springs 
may be excused for indulging the fancy that our 
particular bit of desert is distinguished and in a 
way hallowed by the sacred emblem. 

So wholly distinctive is the locality I speak of 
that an effort is needed to realize that so slight a 
distance separates it from the familiar landscapes 
of the coast regions. As a matter of fact, the differ- 
ence between the desert and coast regions takes 
effect almost instantaneously, so to speak, at the 
summit of the San Gorgonio Pass. Thus it occurs 
that from Palm Springs, well out on the desert, to 
Riverside and Redlands, the center of California's 
finest cultivation, is but a matter of fifty-five miles, 
while Pasadena and Los Angeles are but fifty miles 
farther away, with the Pacific only a. trifle more. 
This operates not only to make the journey from 
one to the other perfectly easy but also to render 
the change spectacular and interesting in a high 
degree. To breakfast late at the beach, or "in 
town," to lunch leisurely at the Mission Inn at 
Riverside (which is strictly the coinme il faut thing 



16 Our Araby 

to do) and lounge for an hour afterwards among 
the famed groves and avenues of the citrus belt, 
and then by mid-afternoon to be arriving at our 
little oasis in time for a cup of tea and a desert 
sunset — this ought to be easy enough and spec- 
tacular enough for even the sophisticated tourist of 
the nineteen-twenties. 



II. THE VILLAGE 

VILLAGE is a pretty word, though ambitious 
settlements are keen to disclaim the implied 
rusticity and to graduate into the rank of 
town or city. Palm Springs has no such aims, and 
is well content to remain far down the list in census 
returns. We decline to take part in the race for 
Improvements, and are (so we feel, anyway) wise 
enough to know when we are well off. Rural Free 
Delivery does not entice us: we prefer the daily 
gathering at the store at mail-time, Indians and 
whites together, where we can count on catching 
Miguel or Romualda if we wish to hire a pony or 
get the washing done. Electric lights? No, thanks: 
somehow nothing seems to us so homelike for the 
dinner-table as shaded candles, or for fireside read- 
ing a good kerosene lamp: while if we want to call 
on a neighbor after dark, we find that a lantern 
sheds light where you need it instead of illuminat- 
ing mainly the upper air. To us cement sidewalks 
would be a calamity: we may be dusty, but dust is 
natural and we prefer it. After all, the pepper- or 
cottonwood-shaded streets of our Garden of the Sun 
are really only country lanes, and who wants a 
country lane cemented? In fact, a little mistake 
was made when they were named. Cottonwood Row 
would have been better than Indian Avenue, and 



18 Our Araby 

Hot Springs Lane than the commonplace Spring 
Street. 

The Hot Spring is the outstanding natural feature 
of our village, though not so natural as when one 
took one's bath in the rickety cabin which antedated 
the present solid little bath-house. However, the 
Spring itself is as natural, no doubt, as any time 
this five or ten thousand years : and you may get as 
weird a sensation in taking your bath, and as 
healthful a result afterwards, as bygone generations 
of Cahuillas have enjoyed. The water, which is just 
comfortably hot and contains mineral elements 
which render it remarkably curative, comes up 
mingled with quantities of very fine sand. You may 
bask in the clear water on the surface of the pool, 
or, if you want all the fun you can get for your 
money, you may lower yourself into the very mouth 
of the spring where the mixture comes gurgling up. 
This will yield you (especially at night and by 
candle-light) a novel and somewhat shuddery 
experience, though one absolutely without risk; and 
you will come forth with a sense of fitness and fine- 
ness all over to which only a patent medicine adver- 
tisement writer of high attainments could possibly 
do justice. 

Our village is bisected by the Reservation line, 
which thus makes a geographical division of the 
population. Only geographical, though, for, fortu- 
nately, there has never been anything but complete 
harmony between whites and Indians. Something 
more will be said about the Indians later: here I 



The Village 19 

will only remark that I, for one, could not wish 
for better neighbors than our Indians: I should be 
pleased, indeed, to feel sure that they could say as 
much for us. They are but few in number, forty 
or fifty, for the Cahuillas are scattered in small 
rancherias over a wide territory. The white popula- 
tion is variable. In winter and spring, when the 
"Standing Room Only" sign hangs out, there may 
be a total of two hundred or more residents and 
visitors (the latter much the more numerous:) in 
the hot months residents may number a dozen or 
two and visitors there are none. In desert phrase, 
the whites have "gone inside" (i. e., to the coast), 
an odd turn of speech but one quite appropriate 
to the point of view of the man of Big Spaces — 
"inside" where one is shut in and boxed up. You 
will understand when you have lived a little while 
in Our Araby. 

For so small a place, the number of people who 
have fallen under the charm of Palm Springs, and 
their variety of class and kind, are rather surprising. 
You would agree as to the latter point if I were to 
begin to mention names. Wealth and fashion, as 
such, are not much attracted to our village: Palm 
Beach, not Palm Springs, is their mark: but among 
the fraternity of brains the word has passed about, 
and persons of mark are ever finding their way 
here, returning again and again, and bringing or 
sending others. But then, the importance of persons 
of mark in any community is apt to be over- 
estimated; the important thing is the general 



20 Our Araby 

quality, the average. The average with us is auto- 
matically raised by the total absence of any 
hooligan element, such as is sometimes in evidence 
on the sands of the sea-shore. To that class the 
sands of Our Araby do not appeal. On the other 
hand, the scientists, writers, painters, musicians, — 
in fact, all kinds of people who love quiet, thought- 
ful things and whose work or enjoyment lies in 
natural instead of artificial fields, come and share 
with us the wholesome pleasures and interests that 
are inherent in a clean, new, unspoiled bit of this 
wonderful old world. 

So much for the people. The village itself is a 
place of two or three score of unpretentious cottages 
scattered along half a dozen palm- and pepper- 
shaded streets. We don't run much to lawns and 
formal gardens: we live in the desert because we 
like it, hence we don't care to shut ourselves away 
in little citified enclosures. But the two or three 
old places which formed the nucleus of the settle- 
ment are bowers of bloom and umbrageous green- 
ery. Gray old fig-trees lean out over the sidewalk, 
while oranges, dates, grape-fruit, lemons, and trees 
of other sorts for fruit or ornament flourish in 
tribute to the memory of that wise old Scotsman and 
pioneer. Doctor Welwood Murray, who had the 
courage to plant and the patience to rear them in 
the teeth of horticultural disabilities. 

There remain to be mentioned our stores, inns, 
school, and church. Of these it is enough to say 
that they are well up to what would be expected in 



The Vill\ge 21 

a community such as ours: though one of the inns 
might fairly object tliat this statement comes short 
of doing it justice. There are, further, a minute 
Public Library, housed in a quaint little hutch of 
adobe, which, half a century ago, was the Stage 
Station, and a tasteful Rest-house raised as a me- 
morial to the old Scottish doctor, named above, who 
may fairly be termed the patriarch, well nigh the 
founder, of our village. 



III. THE INDIANS 

TO SAY that the Indians make a main point 
in the interest of life in our village sounds 
patronizing, as though the whites were the 
natural residents and the Indians merely an inci- 
dental feature. Of course the reverse is the fact: 
we are the new-comers : whether "interesting" is the 
term they would apply to us, or some other, is open 
to speculation. However, the point is that they are 
an integral part of the charm of life in Our Araby. 
Their ways of life and points of view differ from 
ours enough to give them the attraction of novelty, 
while their independence and good nature render 
them congenial as friends and neighbors. 

This small band of Indians, a part of the widely- 
scattered Cahuilla tribe, have lived from time 
immemorial about the hot spring which gives the 
Indian village, or rancheria, the Spanish name of 
Agua Caliente, by which the Reservation is still 
officially known. (There are other places of this 
name in California, one being the village, formerly 
a rancheria of this same tribe, now generally called 
Warner's Springs, in San Diego County.) They 
have long been Christianized, and are numbered 
among the so-called Mission Indians of California, 
being cared for, in religious matters, by the Roman 
Catholic priest stationed at Banning, while admin- 
istratively they are under the charge of a Govern- 



The Indians 23 

ment Agent, whose headquarters are at the town of 
San Jacinto, on the other side of the mountain. 

The reproach of laziness, commonly levelled 
against Indians, cannot fairly be laid against the 
Indians of Palm Springs. The men either farm 
their own little holdings, or work for their white 
neighbors, or "hire out" on Coachella or Imperial 
ranches, or, at fruit-picking time, in the prune or 
almond orchards of the mountains. Some of them 
are well-to-do, with cattle or alfalfa to sell and 
horses to rent; besides which they have their patri- 
mony of monumental old fig-trees, scions of the 
famous Black Mission figs of San Gabriel (and you 
may have noticed that Palm Springs early figs do 
not go begging in Los Angeles markets.) Old 
Marcos is even the proud owner of a few of those 
original epoch - making date-palms which have 
opened a new chapter in American horticulture, and 
his Deglet Nurs have been adjudged by the knowing 
ones to be second to none. 

Of the women, some find time from their own 
employments to do laundry or other household 
work in the village, while, fortunately, one or two 
still practise the old arts and are notable weavers 
of baskets: a basket by Dolores, wife of Francisco 
Patencio, who lives down by the fiesta hoBse, may 
well be counted a prize. The making of pottery, 
sad to say, has ceased: the white man's cheap tin- 
ware has driven the artistic but fragile olla from 
the field. But about the sites of vanished Indian 
homes you will find the ground strewn with frag- 



24 Our Araby 

merits, and persons with a nose for relics now and 
then make interesting finds of pottery or basket- 
ware that was cached by long-dead hands in cran- 
nies of the rocks. Relic-hunters will find interest 
also in the picture-writings which adorn the walls 
of near-by caves, and in mortar-holes deeply sunk 
in granite boulders, mute witnesses to the back- 
breaking labors of departed generations of squaws. 
An experience decidedly worth while is yielded 
by the fiesta which is held in mid-winter of most 
years. It is a celebration of remembrance for the 
dead, and consists in dancing, in the chanting of 
traditional songs of the tribe, in feasting, and in, 
finally, the burning of effigies of those who have 
passed away since the previous occasion. The 
flicker - lighted gloom of the fiesta - house, the 
rhythmic manoeuvrings, and the unearthly ulula- 
tions that accompany them make a total sufficiently 
weird, even without such an adjunct as the eating 
of glowing coals from the fire by the medicine-man, 
a star performer from a neighboring rancheria. 
However, all this (which may well seem barbaric 
to the reader) must be understood as merely a 
belated survival from the dim old days, not by any 
means an indication of the ordinary manner of life 
of our thoroughly good friends and fellow-villagers, 
the Indians of Palm Springs. 



IV. AMUSEMENTS 

A QUESTION that arises in many persons' 
minds when one speaks of the desert as a 
place of any attractiveness is — But what can 
there be to do there? It is a natural question, too, 
for to most people the desert signifies only a region 
of dreariness and horror, a mere waste spot marring 
the earth's wholesome fertility and beauty. That, 
however, is a total mistake, one of those conven- 
tional delusions that are based only on generations 
of popular misconception. Only one or two 
hundred years ago the forests and mountains in 
which we now delight were thought places of dread 
and ugliness. People simply hadn't caught the idea; 
and today, as regards the desert, a few people are 
just beginning to catch it. Essentially, the desert is 
Nature in her simplest expression. Has it come to 
this — that Nature must be spiced up with amuse- 
ments before we can take pleasure in her? Surely 
space, quietude, and freedom are fine things: 
solitude can be magnificent: loneliness need not 
scare us as if we were lost kittens. 

However, as it happens, there are plenty of ways 
of amusing oneself actively on the desert. The most 
popular at Palm Springs, undoubtedly, is horseback 
riding, with or without the adjunct of a picnic. Our 
Araby is ideal for this sort of thing. The " 'ard 
'igh road" is all right for the automobile, which 



26 Our Araby 

indeed has fairly claimed it for its own; but the 
glory of horseback is the cross-country feature, and 
here you have it unalloyed. The free fenceless 
desert stretches before you to the horizon, and 
wherever you guide your horse, something new, 
strange, or wonderful calls constantly for notice — 
new plants and animals, new colors, new sha}Des, 
(perhaps also new thoughts.) Thus, there are few 
Palm Springs mornings that you will not see some 
gay party cantering off on the wise Indian ponies 
bound for Palm Caiion, or Andreas, or the dunes; 
or, maybe, starting more leisurely with saddle-bags 
and blanket-rolls on the longer trip down to the 
Salton Sea, or into the Morongos, or up the Vande- 
venter trail to Pinon Flat, or by the Gordon trail 
to Idyllwild in the pines. 

To those who are wedded to their ease and their 
autos plenty of inviting resources are open. Good 
or practicable roads have been built to several of 
the near-by caiions — notably to Palm Caiion, the 
favorite — and the main stage-road across the desert 
runs through Palm Springs, by which you may go 
down the valley as far as you like — or on to New 
York, for that matter. All the valley towns are on 
that road — Indio, Coachella, Thermal, Mecca — and 
from it one has access to all other roads and may 
explore whither and what he will — date-gardens, 
fig-groves, the haunts of the earliest grapes, melons, 
and asparagus: or may run down beside the Salton 
Sea to Imperial Valley, the land of cotton, and "the 



Amusements 27 

line," beyond which lies the land of revolutions, 
distressful Mexico. 

The time has come, too, when flying must be 
counted in when one thinks of ways and means of 
amusement or of getting about. There is not, of 
course, much to be said yet on this score, but it 
may be remarked that Our Araby is not lagging 
behind the rest of the world, and ali'eady is critical 
of the pilot who fails to bring his "bus" neatly to 
earth regardless of cactus and creosote brush. Cer- 
tainly it would seem that the spacious, level desert 
is the very model of a natural airdrome, and I look 
to see aeronauts, professional and amateur, taking 
Nature's hint and exploiting these advantages. A 
project is under way for forming the piece of 
country comprising Palm Canon and the picturesque 
localities adjacent thereto into a National Park. I 
hazard the guess that when this is done provision 
will be made for air-travel to and about the tract. 
The American tourist expects to have Nature served 
up in up-to-date fashion, and Uncle Sam may be 
trusted to comply. 

Under the next heading I outline some of the 
favorite trips, and the map, it is hoped.^ will be of 
use in planning and executing them and suggesting 
others. There is, so far, a glorious lack of "No 
Trespassing" signs in Our Araby: our caiions and 
palm-groves are not yet roped off and adorned with 
brusque notifications to "Keep Out"; but this state 
of things cannot be guaranteed to last forever. It 



28 Our Araby 

^s the age of barbed wire, and even the desert cannot 
hope to escape it. 

Coming now to the more specific forms of amuse- 
ment, we have, for those who must be up to date, 
"the movies": not the commonplace side of the 
great modern pastime, the sitting in a "palace" and 
watching the reeling off of pictures on a screen, 
but the more exciting first-hand experience of seeing 
them made, the thrill of the real thing, flesh and 
blood (with paint and powder thrown in.) In the 
last few years Palm Springs has become head- 
quarters, so to speak, for Algeria, Egypt, Arabia, 
Palestine, India, Mexico, a good deal of Turkey, 
Australia, South America, and sundry other parts 
of the globe. Wondrous are the sights and sounds 
the dwellers in Palm Springs are privileged to see 
and hear when "the movies are in town": wondrous 
the "stars" that then shine in broad daylight on us; 
wondrous the cowboys, cavalcades, and caballeros, 
the tragedies, the feats of daring, the rescues and 
escapes, for which our dunes and canons provide 
the setting. The quiet village becomes in fact a 
movie studio for the time, and the visitor whose 
ideal is "Something doing every minute" has then 
little reason to pine away with ennui. 

Moving pictures remind one of the other and, as 
a rule, less spectacular kind. Our Araby, with its 
marvelous display of tone and color — tone the 
most elusive, color the most unearthly and ethereal 
— is a land of enchantment to the painter, and its 
fame has spread from one to another until, now, 



Amusements 29 

every winter and spring sees painters of note 
studying these desert landscapes, so fascinatingly 
different in their problems of conception and 
handling from anything that commonly comes in 
the artist's way. It looks more than likely that by 
ten or fifteen years from now a school of painters 
will have made Our Araby their province, just as 
now there are the Marblehead and Gloucester men 
in the East and the Newlyn men in England. A 
forerunner of the group I forecast has already been 
working for many years with Palm Springs for his 
headquarters, Mr. Carl Eytel, whose knowledge of 
his field has been earned, as it were, inch by inch 
and grain by grain, and whose conscientious work 
gives a truer rendering of the desert than do sen- 
sational canvases of the popular Wild West sort. 

The person must be very insensible to natural 
interests whose curiosity is not aroused by the 
markedly distinctive vegetable life which the desert 
offers to the view. From the moment that your 
train or auto begins to run down-grade on leaving 
Banning the fact is plain that you are, botanically 
speaking, in a new world. Gray, the livery of the 
desert, largely takes the place of green; stunted 
forms and bizarre shapes notify you that wholly 
different conditions here reign. Though you may 
have no leanings toward botany as a science or a 
hobby you will hardly fail to be interested by the 
novel objects that surround you, and are likely to 
find yourself botanizing mildly before you know it, 
if only to the extent of learning the name of the 



30 Our Araby 

cactus that scratched you, or whether it was a 
mesquit or a catclaw that tore your clothes. The 
cacti alone are "worth the money": the biznaga, for 
instance, on close acquaintance is a most engaging 
fellow, and seriously, no one should go through life 
without interviewing a cholla. A tree that is as 
green as grass, yet has no leaves, is worth one's 
notice: so is one that is total gray and pricklier 
than an armful of hedgehogs, and another that 
bears for fruit a neat imitation of a handful of 
screws. 

But it is when the Great Spring Flower Show 
comes on, especially if the rains have come just 
right, that our Garden of the Sun shows what it is 
capable of botanically. In January one or two 
early-waking plants, such as crimson beloperone 
and yellow bladder-pod, modestly start the show. 
February brings the wild heliotrope and the first 
hint of the glory of the verbenas, with clouds of 
wild plum in the caiions. March is a steady 
crescendo of color, and by mid-April the riot is on 
and Flora is emptying her lap over the desert in 
cascades of multi-hued bloom. On the levels, pools 
of rosy - purple verbenas spread out and run 
together into lakes; the mountain slopes, built of 
slabs of uncompromising rock, by some magic con- 
trive to send out myriads of golden blossoms of the 
incense-bush; the caiions turn into mazes and 
tangles of flowering rarities that go to the head of 
the most experienced botanist. Now is the time to 
notice how admirable even a cactus can be when 




THE PALMS OF OUR AUAliV 



Amiisements 31 

Spring gets into its blood; you will hardly match 
those silky cups of purple or cerise in greenhouses 
of millionaires. The ocotillo, too — where will you 
find anything floral that is finer in its way than that 
flaming scarlet tongue? It is the desert's own fierce 
flower, not on any account to be missed, and well 
worth the ride down to Deep Canon, even if the 
ride showed you nothing else worth your notice, 
which would be strange indeed.* 

There is plenty of interesting matter here, too, 
for those to whom animal life appeals. For bird 
study, especially, this locality off"ers exceptional 
facilities, for the San Gorgonio Pass is the great 
migration highway for a large region, and the Palm 
Springs oasis, lying at the foot of the pass, forms a 
natural stopping-place for the small travelers. It is 
for this reason a favorite station for bird-men, as it 
is for naturalists in general. Beetle-men and 
butterfly-men, mouse-and-gopher-men, and devotees 
of all sorts of zoological ramifications with alarm- 
ing names spend rapturous days in Our Araby, 
collecting, studying, and classifying, with ever in 
view the thrilling chance of coming upon something 
new — a kangaroo-rat with tail measurement three 
millimeters greater than any yet recorded in the 
halls of science, or some phenomenal development 
of the maxillary arch in a short-nosed pocket-mouse. 
Such triumphs have in the past shed lustre upon 

* Under the heading of Flora and Fauna will be found a 
list of all the desert plants likely to be observed, with 
brief descriptions which will aid in identifying them. 



32 Our Araby 

zoologically-minded visitors to Palm Springs, which 
already has a gopher and a ground-squirrel "named 
for it": — why not again? 

Suspicious people, noticing that I have said 
nothing as to reptiles, may ask "What about the 
snakes?" Here comes in another popular miscon- 
ception, the idea that the desert swarms with rattle- 
snakes, sidewinders, and Gila monsters. The fact 
is that rattlesnakes are certainly no more numerous 
on the desert than in the coast or mountain regions : 
I think on the whole they are fewer here. As for 
the sidewinder (which is simply the desert's special 
form of rattlesnake), in several years' experience I 
have seen but two, one of which was dead when 
found, while the other was hailed with rejoicing 
and carried home tenderly in a tomato-can (being 
needed for photographic purposes), having been an 
object of daily search for two or three months. 
The Gila monster, rare at best, is never seen in or 
near this part of the desert. Ordinary lizards we 
have in plenty, but they, of course, are wholly 
harmless, even friendly and amusing. The chuck- 
walla, with his alligator look, may not be charming, 
but need cause no alarm to anything bigger than a 
house-fly. 

But this is aside from the matter of the amuse- 
ments Our Araby offers her visitors. A few words 
as to sporting possibilities will not come amiss to 
lovers of rod and gun. Fishing will hardly be 
looked for on the desert: indeed, the mention of 
the rod may seem like rather a futile joke. Not 



Amusements 33 

quite so, however : for ten miles from Palm Springs 
is Snow Creek, which comes down from San Jacinto 
Mountain (debouching about opposite Whitewater 
Station) and offers fair trout-fishing, as does also 
the stream in Whitewater Caiion, a few miles away 
across the valley from Snow Creek. This, I must 
confess, exhausts the fishing possibilities of Our 
Araby, unless one is minded to try what can be 
done with the Salton Sea, where some kinds of 
coarse fish, principally mullet, are plentiful and 
seem to give good sport for the gulls and pelicans. 

There is more to be said for the gun, however."" 
Quail are numerous, and give excellent shooting 
when in season. On the open sandy levels the desert 
or Gambel quail in good coveys will be found in 
the vicinity of mesquit thickets: in the canons the 
valley species exists in fair numbers: while at 
higher altitudes the mountain quail appears. Doves 
may be had anywhere near water by gunners who 
care to shoot those trustful creatures. A few snipe 
and duck can be found if one knows where to look 
for them, but, naturally, such spots are few and 
far between in Our Araby. The duck-hunter who 
cares to go so far as to the Salton Sea, however, 
may expect good sport. 



should be noted that shooting on Indian Reservation 
land, except by Indians, is strictly prohibited by law. 
There is a good deal of such land in the neighborhood 
of Palm Springs besides that upon which the Indian 
village is situated. Hunters should inform themselves 
as to the boundaries of Indian land. 



34 Our Araby 

Rabbits — jack and cottontail — are a matter of 
course, though not so much so as in days gone by. 
Nowadays one may tramp a whole morning in the 
Palm Springs locality and hardly empty a barrel. 
Whither the bunnies have gone is rather a mystery. 
Yet I do know the spot I should make for should 
an urgent demand for cottontail-stew arise suddenly 
within me. No, I shall not name the place: that 
is a little secret between the coyotes and me. 

Coyotes and foxes, by-the-by, as also wildcats 
and mountain-lions, should perhaps be mentioned, 
but the first-named two are hardly game, while the 
others are only possibilities of canon camps. Deer, 
however, are more than a possibility in some desert 
localities, though not, of course, on the low open 
levels. Piiion Flat, reached by the Vandeventer 
trail, and a good day's trip from Palm Springs, is 
quite good deer country, and, incidentally, an 
interesting bit of territory to explore, with or with- 
out gun or rifle. 

Two other animals that come in the "big game" 
category may be named, though one of these, the 
antelope, has passed into history so far as Our 
Araby is concerned. A few antelope may linger on 
the stretches of almost untraveled country bordering 
on the Mexican line, but the chances are slight of 
this fine creature being ever again reported from 
the Colorado Desert. The other animal is the 
mountain-sheep (bighorn) which ranges in all the 
desert hills and canons, but is not to be counted for 
shooting purposes, being strictly protected by law. 



Amusements 35 

with no open season. I said strictly, but must add 
— that it were strictly! for it is but too certain 
that since the appearance of the automobile (the 
worst foe of wild game everywhere) on the desert, 
the sheep have fallen victims to illicit shooting to 
a terrible extent. Parties of "sports" — the fellows 
who bear the same relation to sportsmen that 
"gents" do to gentlemen — lolling at ease in high- 
powered cars, now invade every part of the desert 
where a road leads to some remote mine or pros- 
pect, and blaze away at anything that moves, in 
mere intoxication of blood-lust: with result of 
many a wounded animal, ram or ewe just as it 
happens, dragging itself into some haunt inacces- 
sible to man, there to lingeringly perish: — the 
"sport" making the most of his contemptible feat 
by jubilant assertions of "Anyway, I know I hit 
him — saw him fall." 

Beyond the active amusements, so to speak, which 
I have named, there are some immaterial pleasures 
to be enjoyed in Our Araby which, I venture to 
think, remain long in the memory of those who 
come here. It may sound commonplace to talk of 
sunset colorings and sunrise panoramas, but any- 
one who has watched the sunset light on the 
Morongos from the rocky point that overlooks our 
village will allow that it is a revelation of Nature 
in her mood of tenderest loveliness. Nowhere as 
on the desert will you experience what I may best 
call the spirituality of color, beauty in sunset hues 
so extreme that it affects one with a sense of pathos. 



36 Our Araby 

even of solemnity, like the innocent blue of child- 
hood's eyes. Heavenly is a well-worn term, but 
here it comes to one's lips instinctively: such per- 
fection in color seems not of earthly kind. 

The sky of the desert is well worth studying at 
other times than the sunset hour — for instance, at 
the moment when the sun comes striding up in 
inexpressible magnificence of power. Over this 
Garden of the Sun he rises morning after morning 
in such splendor as you will never see but in 
the desert, for here no mists or earthly exhalations 
dim the flashing glory of his first horizontal beams. 
It is then that one grasps the true meaning of that 
everyday word, the sun, and realizes him at last 
for what he is — a Flame, inconceivably vast, in- 
effably pure, unutterably terrible. 

For those who delight in cloud-form and sky- 
scenery, no area of sky that I know approaches in 
interest that which stretches from the southern 
extension of San Jacinto Mountain eastward to 
Santa Rosa Peak. In the rainy season this tract of 
air forms the very frontier of the opposing meteoro- 
logical forces, where day after day one may watch 
the battle between Rain and Drought fought in 
fashion more spectacular than one sees it elsewhere. 
Some particular interplay of air-currents, combined 
with and perhaps arising from the configuration of 
the land below, give rise to a remarkable diversity 
of cloud conditions. Above Santa Rosa there will 
hang for days a vast banner of vapor like the plume 
that curls from the lip of a volcano, while in the 



Amusements 37 

upper air beyond and above it, cirrus, stratus, and 
cumulus merge and evolve in ceaseless manoeuvres. 
I know of no other such "cloud-compelling peak" 
as this, on which another admirer and I have ven- 
tured to confer the title or degree of Santa Rosa de 
las Nuhes (Santa Rosa of the Clouds.) 

Other aerial phenomena occur in these desert 
skies, some of them so unusual that one may suspect 
one's eyes of playing tricks: as, for instance, I did, 
one evening when riding from Andreas Canon soon 
after sunset. The western sky was hidden from me 
by the high wall of mountain on my left; but sud- 
denly I saw on my right — that is to say, in the East 
—the well-known effect of radiating beams of light, 
frequently seen when the sun is at or near the 
horizon. I reined up and stared: yes, there it was, 
plain, even vivid. What was up? Had West become 
East, and East, West? Or couldn't I tell one from 
the other? These were alarming thoughts, but soon 
I realized that the desert was up to one of its tricks: 
what I saw was the sunset reflected by the eastern 
sky. 

And then there is the night. It may seem odd to 
speak of sleep under the head of Amusements, but 
such sleep as one gets on the desert fairly ranks as 
enjoyment, so it is much the same. Few people 
know what night at its best can be. The desert is 
the place to learn it. Calmness, quietude, restful- 
ness, as a rule very relative terms, here approach 
the absolute. We speak of balmy sleep, and some- 
times think we get it in a bed under a ceiling; but 



38 Our Araby 

that is a mistake. Speaking for myself, the finest 
sleep I ever enjoyed was when for a month or so 
I spread my blankets on the bank of the Tahquitz 
ditch. With two or three inches of dry brush for 
mattress, the air cool, still, and sweet with fifty 
herby essences, the moon and stars stealing by on 
tiptoe so as not to wake me, and Tahquitz telling 
strange old bits of earth-lore under its breath within 
a foot or so of my ear — that was sleep as sleep was 
meant to be. And then to wake up to a desert sun- 
rise! You positively should try it. 




THE MOONLIGHT SONATa" 
From a /^nintim;- />y Mr. Cari Eytel, Paliii Spnnc 



V. TRIPS TO THE CANONS AND OTHER 
NOTABLE POINTS 

IT IS NOT possible in this small book to describe 
in detail the many points of special beauty or 
interest which lie within the range of Palm 
Springs. Here, however, are given brief notes 
regarding the spots most worth visiting, such as will 
serve to outline their particular features and to 
explain how they may be reached. In the latter 
connection, attention is directed to the map which 
will be found inside the back cover. 

For convenience I take them in alphabetical 
order. 

Andreas Canon is four or five miles south of 
Palm Springs, on the way and a little to the west 
of the road to Palm Caiion. A fair automobile 
road goes right to the caiion-mouth. There are fine 
cliffs of the palisade sort, some caves with Indian 
relics, and many palms, one group of which is 
remarkable. There is a stream of pure mountain 
water, and some lovely caiion scenery. A divergence 
may be made on the return trip by taking a trail 
on the north side of the cafion, which leads up to 
the Gordon trail and gives a splendid view of the 
palisade cliffs and the desert: then descending the 
Gordon trail, which connects with the regular Palm 
Caiion road, (See Gordon Trail trip.) 



4^0 Our Araby 

Cathedral Canon is about seven miles southeast 
of Palm Springs, opening to the west of the main 
road down the valley. There is a fair automobile 
road into the cafion, but to reach the narrows a 
rough walk of two miles further is required, which 
by most people would not be thought worth while. 
There are a few palms and sometimes a little water. 

Chino Canon is the wide-mouthed canon which 
opens to the west of the main road a mile or two 
north of Palm Springs. No practicable road runs 
into the canon, but a trail (formerly a wagon- 
road) may be picked out, roughly following the 
pipe-line. In the neck of the caiion there is a 
cienaga (marshy meadow) and a fine grove of 
cottonwoods: also a group of palms beneath which 
is a warm spring which makes a luxurious natural 
bathing-place: adjacent is a stream of cold moun- 
tain water. Near the point where the cafion narrows 
to a gorge there is a cave that is worth visiting; 
and continuing one comes to a cliff of about 5000 
feet sheer. Fine views of the desert are obtainable. 
If the return trip be made by moonlight a weird 
effect may be observed, produced by the reflected 
light from the mountains on either side. Time 
needed, two or three hours each way, as the trail is 
rough. 

The "Coral Reef." This is of course no coral 
reef nor is it anything like one. It is simply a part 
of the mountain wall on the southwest side of the 
Coachella Valley, some twenty-five miles from Palm 



Trips to the Canons 41 

Springs and about six miles southwest of the town 
of Coachella (the same from Indio.) The old 
Indian road to Toro and Martinez passes near the 
"reef." The land is here below sea-level, and the 
water-line of the ancient sea is plainly marked on 
the foot of the mountain. The "coral" is a deposit 
of calcium carbonate left by the water. The like- 
ness to coral is not really close. There are ranches 
in the neighborhood. 

Deep Canon is a main canon of Santa Rosa 
Mountain, reached by following the main road 
down the valley for thirteen miles from Palm 
Springs, when a road will be found which runs 
some distance into the caiion, though not so far as 
the narrows, which are five miles up. Botanists 
will find this a good piece of country: there are 
some splendid palo verdes, cacti are in fine display, 
and ocotillos and agaves are numerous. Beyond the 
narrows the caiion is rocky and romantic. The 
walls are strikingly high and steep, and a few palms 
are scattered along the stream. 

The Devil's Garden. This is a tract of open 
desert mesa about eight miles north and slightly 
west of Palm Springs and not far from Whitewater, 
extending in fact nearly to the edge of Whitewater 
Canon. It is a natural cactus garden, where many 
species of cacti are associated in what amounts to 
a thicket of these odd vegetable forms. A trip to it 
makes a pleasant cross-country horseback excur- 
sion; or it may be reached by automobile via the 



42 Our Araby 

Whitewater Ranch and the Morongo Pass road, say 
fifteen miles. (There are two bad sandy stretches 
of the road beyond Whitewater.) Time needed, 
about three hours horseback or one hour automo- 
bile each way. 

The Garnet Hills are a ridge of gravelly ground 
just to the east of Palm Springs Station, which is 
about six miles due north of the village. The old 
sandy road to the east of the stage-road ( a continua- 
tion of Indian Avenue) should be taken. There is 
nothing of special note here, but the place offers a 
convenient objective for a short horseback trip, as 
well as fine views of San Jacinto and San Bernar- 
dino Mountains and the open desert. Garnets are 
not hard to find, but none of good quality need be 
expected. Time needed, about two hours each way. 

The Gordon Trail, or P. and P. (Palm and 
Pine) Trail, is a direct route to the mountain resort 
of Idyllwild on San Jacinto Mountain. It was built 
at the expense and through the public spirit of Mr. 
M. S. Gordon of Palm Springs. It leaves the Palm 
Caiion road at a point just beyond the Government 
Experiment Station, and climbs by steep but not 
excessive grades, reaching about 8000 feet at one 
spot. Water will first be found at "Avispas," 2000 
feet (two hours), then at Tahquitz Creek, 6000 feet, 
which should be the noon stopping-place. There- 
after the trail is through virgin forest (two hours 
to the highest point, whence it drops abruptly to 
Idyllwild.) Thus the through trip may be made on 



Trips to the Canons 43 

horseback in one day. Magnificent panoramic 
views of the desert and the Salton Sea are obtained, 
and in late spring a great display of blossoming 
mountain plants — wild lilac, yucca, manzanita, etc. 
Time needed, twelve hours, allowing one hour's rest. 

Note — It is unwise to make this trip alone, and a 
safe, trail-broke horse, well shod, is necessary. 

A pleasant short round-trip may be arranged by 
taking the Gordon Trail as far as a point above 
Andreas Caiion giving a fine view of the palisade 
cliffs and the desert, returning thence by a trail 
which branches off to the left (south) and descends 
to the canon, whence there is a road to Palm 
Springs. (See Andreas Caiion trip.) 

Hidden Spring Caiion is a secluded spot in the 
foothills of the Orocopia Mountains. This entails a 
longish trip, the distance being about fifty miles. 
The route is down the valley by the main road as 
far as Mecca (thirty-eight miles), thence three 
miles east on the Blythe road, then two miles 
southeast following the Power-line, then north up 
the wash into the canon (this is a hard pull for 
automobiles.) Splendid near outlooks over the 
Salton Sea are obtained, and the caiion is remark- 
able, resembling Painted Canon in formation and 
coloring. It contains a score or so of palms, also 
a spring of fair water, to reach which one must 
crawl on hands and knees through a narrow pas- 
sage-way. Owing to slow travel, this trip can, best 



44 Our Araby 

be handled as an over-night-camp trip, though a 
strenuous one-day will cover it. 

Refer to "Salton Sea" and "Painted Canon" 
trips, in same general locality. 

Magnesia Spring Canon opens to the southwest 
upon the main valley road near Frye's Well, about 
twelve miles from Palm Springs, (being the next 
canon to the northwest of Deep Caiion.) It is quite 
easy of access, the approach being sandy instead 
of bouldery, but automobiles may find difficulty 
after leaving the main road (at a point opposite 
Frye's old house.) At the narrows, about two 
miles from the mouth, there are fine cliffs; also a 
little water, not of the best quality, yet drinkable; 
and a rock-bound pool large enough for a minia- 
ture swim. In the upper caiion there are a number 
of palms. This caiion makes a pleasant objective 
for a picnic, or for a one or two days' camping- 
trip. 

Mission Creek Canon is a caiion of San Ber- 
nardino Mountain opening northwesterly to the 
north of Painted Hill, which is about three miles 
north of Whitewater Station. The distance from 
Palm Springs is about fifteen miles. The route for 
automobiles (twenty miles) is by way of White- 
water Ranch and the Morongo Pass road, keeping 
to the west at the forks: on horseback one may take 
the old sandy road to Palm Springs Station, con- 
tinuing north by a road which skirts the Devil's 
Garden (q. v.) The caiion has some remarkable 



Tiups TO THE Canons 45 

rock colorings and formations, with evidences of 
volcanic action. There are two or three ranches 
belonging to Indians and whites: also good and 
abundant water. Time needed, one day by automo- 
bile: one night out by horseback. 

The Morongo Trip. I use this term to desig- 
nate an excursion, of whatever length one likes, into 
the mountains that face one looking across the 
desert to the north and east from Palm Springs 
(actually a spur of San Bernardino Mountain, but 
locally known as the Morongos.) The route for 
automobiles is by way of Whitewater Ranch, 
branching off thence to the road running northeast 
to the Morongo Pass. This leads by way of Warren's 
Ranch ("Chuckwarren's"), Warren's Wells, and 
Coyote Holes, to the oasis of Twenty-nine Palms, on 
the southern edge of the Mojave Desert. A worth- 
while loop is made by turning south at the sign- 
board (six miles beyond Warren's Wells) marked 
"Keyes Ranch, Quail Springs," etc.: another sign- 
board at the Keyes Ranch will direct you to Twenty- 
nine Palms via Gold Park. A great variety of 
desert scenery is thus met, including exceedingly 
striking rock formations and those botanical curi- 
osities, the Joshua trees, as well as fine views of the 
great peaks, San Jacinto, San Gorgonio, and Santa 
Rosa. The trip may be prolonged from Twenty- 
nine Palms into a circuit by way of Dale, Cotton- 
wood Springs, Shafer's Well, and Mecca, near the 
north shore of the Salton Sea, but inquiries should 
be made as to the state of the roads before venturing; 



46 Our Araby 

on this extension. Time needed, one day the round 
trip by automobile to the Keyes Ranch or Twenty- 
nine Palms, (the latter being 136 miles, round 
trip.) 

Murray Canon is a picturesque canon opening 
westward just to the south of Andreas Canon (q. v.) 
It has many fine palms and some interesting rock 
formations, and provides a convenient and agree- 
able short trip or picnic place. There is a fair 
automobile road leading into the canon. A small 
stream of fair water runs in winter and spring. 

Painted Canon or Red Canon is a remark- 
able ravine in what are locally called the Mud Hills, 
on the northeast side of the Coachella Valley. It 
opens about five miles north from Mecca, and thus 
is about forty-three miles from Palm Springs. The 
features of the caiion are the brilliant coloring of 
the walls in places, and the height and verticality of 
the cliffs. The approach to the canon, and its floor, 
are sandy and likely to be troublesome for automo- 
biles. A small flow of water may be found tv/o or 
three miles up, but this is not dependable. Time 
needed, one day by automobile. 

Refer to "Salton Sea" and "Hidden Spring 
Canon" trips, in same general locality. 

Palm Canon. This may well be termed the 
most notable point of Our Araby's scenery, and it 
has been not a little "written up" and pictured in 
magazine and newspaper articles. It opens about 
seven miles south of Palm Springs, at the very end 



Trips to the Canons 47 

of the arm of desert into which Andreas and Murray 
Caiions also debouch. An automobile road runs 
to the mouth of the canon, which is a rocky, wind- 
ing ravine, strikingly picturesque, crowded with 
palms to the number of, probably, thousands. A 
good stream of water flows in the canon, and 
greatly enhances its charm. So unique and beauti- 
ful is the place that plans are afoot for setting apart 
this caiion and some surrounding territory as a 
National Park or Monument. 

The Salton Sea, of which much has been writ- 
ten, is really a great lake formed by the overflow of 
the Colorado River. As a geographical accident, 
so to speak, of some note it is worth a visit, as well 
as for its scenic features and for its interest as a 
purely desert lake and an example of geological 
phenomena. Its nearest point to Palm Springs is 
the northern shore, which is a mile or two from the 
town of Mecca, thirty-eight miles down the valley. 
Good camping-places by the "sea," with fair water, 
are at Fig-tree John Springs and Fish Springs, 
directions for which can be learned at Mecca. Time 
needed, one day by automobile. 

Refer to "Hidden Spring Canon" and "Painted 
Canon" trips, in same general locality. 

The Sand-Dunes A trip to the big dunes will 
be worth the visitor's while, either the high dunes 
six or eight miles directly northeast of Palm 
Springs or the wide expanse of smaller dunes which 
lie near and to the left of the road as one a;oes down 



■^18 Our Araby 

the valley, say sixteen miles out. The view is mem- 
orable among these great sand-masses, which realize 
one's idea of Arabia and the Sahara. A picnic here 
will be a novelty. Needless to say, no water can 
be expected among the dunes. Time needed, one 
day horseback. 

Seven Palms is a small natural oasis on the 
open desert, about seven miles north and a little 
east of Palm Springs. It makes a pleasant horse- 
back trip (or walk in cool weather), and may be 
reached by taking the old sandy road to Palm 
Springs Station and thence by a trail skirting the 
north edge of the Garnet Hills; or it can easily be 
found by striking across country toward the north- 
erly point of the big dunes, looking out for the 
palms v/hich will be in sight before the railroad is 
passed. The attractions are the palms, which are 
charmingly grouped, and the fine views of the 
mountain peaks to the southwest and northwest. 
There is water in plenty, but of poor quality. Time 
needed, two hours horseback. 

Snow Creek Canon opens to the southwest 
opposite Whitewater Station, and is easily reached 
by following the stage-road to that point, whence a 
plain road leads into the carion. A good stream of 
water flows all the year, and fair trout-fishing may 
be had in it in the season. In a side canon on the 
south of the main caiion near its mouth there is a 
group of palms which is interesting as marking the 
westerly limit of the tree's growth. A branch road 



Trips to the Canons 49 

on the south side of the canon leads to Snow Creek 
Falls, which are worth visiting when much water is 
coming down. Time needed, one to two hours by 
automobile. 

Tahquitz Canon, (named for the evil spirit of 
the Cahuillas) is marked by a striking break in the 
mountain wall just to the south of Palm Springs. 
It is the favorite resort in the neighborhood of the 
village, the popular route being the foot-path along 
the bank of the Tahquitz ditch, which follows the 
base of the mountain. The main feature of interest 
for most people is the waterfall, which after heavy 
rains is quite impressive; but the rock scenery, the 
cacti, and the outlook from the caiion portals are 
all well worth notice. There are two trails worth 
exploring, an upper and a lower. Automobiles can 
take a road (fair) just south of the village going to 
the mouth of the caiion. Only the lower part, as 
far as the fall, is accessible without hard and even 
dangerous climbing. 

Thousand Palm Caiion lies to the east and 
somewhat south of Palm Springs, being on the 
opposite side of the valley and opening into the 
foothills of the San Bernardino spur. It is hardly 
accessible by automobile, but provides a fine day's 
horseback trip by striking across country through 
the dunes, crossing the railroad at Edom and con- 
tinuing east by a middling road. The caiion con- 
tains remarkable groves of palms. Water of fair 
quality has been developed and is found near the 



50 Our Araby 

mouth. As the distance from Palm Springs is about 
fifteen miles, and the country not easy, the trip can 
best be taken as a one-night-out expedition, but it 
is not too much for a return the same day if an 
early start be made. 

Two- Bunch Palms is a double group of palms 
picturesquely placed on a bench at the foot of the 
hills three or four miles north of Seven Palms. It 
can be reached by continuing north across country 
from that place (q. v.), being easily found by look- 
ing out for the palms, which soon come in sight. 
The spot commands fine views of the open desert 
and the mountains. There is a spring of good 
water. This makes an enjoyable all-day's horseback 
picnic trip, Seven Palms being taken on the way. 
Time needed, a good three hours each way. 

The Vandeventer Trail starts from near the 
foot of Palm Carion (a little to the east) and 
climbs to the high plateau known as Pirion Flat. It 
is a long trail of about twenty miles following 
roughly the dividing line between the outlying spurs 
of San Jacinto and Santa Rosa Mountains. About 
halfway of the trail is a spot called Little Paradise, 
which is practically the only place where camp can 
be made in this rough piece of country, also the 
only spot where one may rely on getting water (in 
a small cienaga, or marsh, not easily found.) The 
trip to this point and return may be made on horse- 
back in one long day. 



Trips to the Canons 51 

Whitewater Canon opens to the north from 
Whitewater Station, which is nine miles by the 
stage-road from Palm Springs. It contains nothing 
of special interest, but there are a few palms, also 
good water, and fair trout-fishing may be found in 
the season if one goes far enough in the caiion, up 
which there is a road for a considerable distance. 
By making the trip on horseback, across country, 
other places may be taken en route, viz: Seven 
Palms and the Devil's Garden, which makes it well 
worth while. Time needed, one long day horseback. 

N. B. As regards excursions involving crossing 
the open desert (for instance, the trips to Seven 
Palms, Thousand Palm Caiion, the Sand-dunes, the 
Devil's Garden, etc.) it is advisable to choose one's 
day with special reference to wind conditions. On 
days of strong wind it may easily prove that the 
pleasure is outweighed by the discomfort. 



VI. FLORA AND FAUNA 

A LARGE element in the attraction of Our 
Araby lies in the novelty of its animal and 
vegetable life. The former is a matter princi- 
pally for naturalists, who find interest in noting the 
variations from type as regards habits, color, size, 
etc., wrought by special conditions among the mam- 
mals, birds, and reptiles of the desert. Yet one need 
not be a scientist in order to appreciate the humors 
of, for instance, the jolly little hairy-tailed desert 
mice who have chummed up with me by many a 
camp-fire, where they equally amused and amazed 
me by taking headers into the hot ashes at every 
opportunity, as though the thought of being baked 
alive was irresistible. This, too, is the place to enjoy 
the antics of that fine joker and gymnast, the road- 
runner, of whom strange tales are told, yet none too 
strange to seem credible to his admirers. 

There would be little value to anyone in printing 
here a detailed list of the birds and animals found 
in our territory. Such a list would run into hun- 
dreds of items (of rats, mice, gophers, or lizards, 
for instance, many different kinds would need to be 
noted, as well as of sundry birds : ) and without the 
aid of colored illustrations it would be all but 
worthless, even if lengthy descriptions and measure- 
ments were given. A brief enumeration of the birds, 
mammals, and reptiles is given below, regarding 



I"! OlL\ AND FaLXA 53 

which it should be borne in mind that not only the 
immediate neighborhood of Palm Springs but also 
the caiions and higher ground within a radius of 
some miles is included in the territory covered. 
This information is drawn from two publications 
of the University of California, viz: "An Account 
of the Birds and Mammals of the San Jacinto Area 
of Southern California," by J. Grinnell and H. S. 
Swarth, and "The Reptiles of the San Jacinto Area 
of Southern California," by Sarah Rogers Atsatt: 
both published by the University of California 
Press, Berkeley, California. To these the reader 
who desires complete data is referred. 

BIRDS 

Bluebird, Western Ouzel (Dipper) 

Bush-tit Owl, two or three species 

Buzzard (Turkey vulture) Pewee, Western Wood 

Chat, Long-tailed Phainopepla 

Coot (Mud-hen) Phoebe, Say and Black 

Dove, Mourning Plover, Killdeer 

Duck, two or three species Poor-will, Dusky 

Eagle, Golden Quail, three species 

Falcon, Prairie Raven, Western 

Flycatcher, two or three Roadrunner 

species Robin, Western 

Gnatcatcher, two species Shrike (Butcher-bird) 

Goldfinch, two or three Snipe, Wilson 

species Sparrow, many species 

Grosbeak, Black-headed Swallow, two or three species 

and Blue Swift, White-throated 

Hawk, several species Thrasher, Leconte 

Heron, Night Towhee, two or three species 
Hummingbird, several species Verdin 

Jay, Pifion and California Vireo, two or three species 

Lark, Horned Warbler, several species 
(continued) 



54 Our Araby 

Lark, Meadow Woodpecker, Cactus and Red- 
Linnet (House finch) shafted (Flicker) 

Mockingbird Wren, two or three species 

Nighthawk, Texas Yellowthroat, Western 
Oriole, two or three species 

NoTE:The California Condor, one of the greatest of flying 
birds, has within only the last few years vanished from this 
region. 

MAMMALS 

Bat, two or three species Kangaroo-rat, two or three 

Chipmunk, Antelope species 

Cottontail rabbit Mouse, various species 

Cougar (Panther, Puma, Pocket-mouse, two or three 

Mountain-lion) species 

Coyote Sheep (Bighorn) 

Deer, Mule Skunk, two species 

Fox, Kit and Gray Wildcat (Lynx) 

Gopher, two species Wood-rat, White-footed and 

Ground-squirrel, two species Brown-footed 
Jackrabbit 

REPTILES 

Lizards, various, including the Chuckwalla and Horned-toad. 
Snakes: Garter, Gopher, Rattlesnake, Red-racer, Sidewinder. 
Tortoise. 

A much larger number of people are interested 
in the desert plants, which offer the advantage of 
being always on view, than in the animal life, 
which must be studied under difficulties. Many of 
the desert growths are strange enough to challenge 
attention at first sight: others steal into one's notice 
or affection by virtue of some quaintness or beauty 
of blossom, or by some trait of the useful or un- 
expected. Detailed descriptions of such are out of 
the question here, nor would descriptions, without 



Flora and Fauna 55 

expensive colored illustrations, be much to the 
point. The best that is possible in this small book 
is to transcribe from my larger volume, "California 
Desert Trails," a fairly complete list of the desert 
plants, the brief notes on which will serve to iden- 
tify a good many of them. The "Western Wild 
Flower Guide" of Mr. Charles F. Saunders (an 
invaluable manual for anyone interested in Cali- 
fornia's wild flowers) and the "Field Book of West- 
ern Wild Flowers" of Miss Margaret Armstrong in 
collaboration with J. Thornber, both of which are 
illustrated, include a fair number of the noticeable 
desert flowers, and will be found useful for 
reference. 



VII. NOTICEABLE PLANTS OF THE DESERT 



Botanists must kindly overlook the lack of exactitude in 
these descriptions, which are necessarily brief and in which 
technical terms have purposely been wholly avoided. 

It should be borne in mind that a number of plants may 
be met on the desert, especially about settlements or culti- 
vated areas, that are not native there. A few of these, 
such as are most likely to come under observation, are 
included below. If there seem to be omissions in the 
following list, the explanation may be that the plants in 
question do not properly come under desert classification. 



Abronia aurita. Sand Verbena (not really a verbena, but 
somewhat like that plant in its flowering.) A low, 
trailing, sticky, soft-stemmed plant, bearing close clus- 
ters of fragrant, rosy-purple flowers. Blooms in mid- 
spring. 

Acacia greggii. Cat-claw, Una de gato. A bush up to 10 
feet high, crowded with small sharp thorns, common 
in caiions and on hillsides: often mistaken for a small 
mesquit, the leaves being like those of that tree but 
smaller. Flower a yellowish "spike" (resembling a 
pussy-willow catkin) : fruit a pod, often curiously 
twisted. Blooms in early summer. 

Adenostoma sparsifolium. Red-shank, Bastard cedar, Cha- 
miso, Yerba del pasmo. A tall, fragrant bush with 
red, shreddy bark and fine, stringy foliage. Found in 
the mountains bordering the desert, not widely dis- 
tributed. Flowers small, white, profuse. Blooms in 
late spring. 

Agave deserti. Wild Century-plant, Maguey, Mescal. 
Leaves blue-gray, very large, succulent, with strong 
prickles on edges and a thorn at apex, starting from 
the ground. Flower-stalk 8 or 10 feet high, bearing 
many sets of clustered, yellow, bell-shaped flowers. 



NOTICEAHLE PLANTS 57 

Common in parts of the desert mountains. Blooms in 
mid-spring. 
Amsinckia spectabilis. Fiddle-head, Zacate gordo. A very 
common, small, hairy, slender-stemmed plant, with 
narrow leaves and small orange flowers on stalks that 
curl at the tip. Blooms in early and mid-spring. 

Anemopsis californica. Yerba mansa. A low, rank-growing 
plant found only in damp places. Leaves large and 
coarse: flowers large, white, with protruding conical 
centre. Blooms in mid-spring. 

Aphyllon cooperi. Cancer-root. A low, succulent plant, 
somewhat like a stalk of asparagus, bearing a number 
of small, purplish flowers. The plant is a parasite, 
growing on the roots of other plants. Not common. 
Blooms in late summer. 

Argemone hispida. Thistle poppy, Cardo, Chicalote. A 
prickly, gray or bluish leafed, thistly-looking plant, 1 
or 2 feet high, with large, fragile flowers, white with 
yellow centre. Blooms in mid- and late summer. 

Aster orcuttii. A hardy-looking plant of the driest desert 
caiions, 1 to 2 feet high; rather rare. Leaves stiff and 
paper-like, with prickly-toothed edges: flowers large 
and handsome, of lavender rays with yellow centre. 
Blooms in early summer. 

Astragalus coccineus. A low plant with almost white stem 
and leaves and handsome cardinal-red flowers. Found 
in the desert mountains, but rare. Blooms in mid- 
spring. 

Atriplex canescens. Salt-bush, Shad-scale. A good-sized 
roundish bush with small, grayish leaves, inconspicuous 
flowers, and tassels of striking, bright green seed- 
vessels. Blooms in early summer. 

Atriplex hymenelytra. Desert holly. A stiff, shrubby plant 
1 or 2 feet high, with whitish, holly-like leaves and 
inconspicuous flowers. Found in alkaline soil in dry 
caiions or on open desert. Blooms in mid-spring. 

Atriplex lentiformis. Quail-bush. A large gray bush very 
common on silt or alkaline soil, up to 15 feet high. 



58 Our Araby 

and usually of smooth, dome-shaped outline. Flowers 
inconspicuous. Blooms in mid-spring. 

Baileya pauciradiata. Cotton-plant. A small, loosely 
growing plant with pale gray-green stems, narrow 
woolly leaves, and small, lemon-yellow flowers. Blooms 
in mid- and late summer. 

Bebbia juncea. A roundish, dark green bush a foot or two 
high, with many slender, almost leafless stems and 
numerous small, yellow, fragrant flowers. Blooms 
throughout summer. 

Beloperone californica. Chuparosa. A good - sized bush, 
almost leafless, with purplish green, downy stems and 
handsome, dark red, tubular flowers. One of the earliest 
blooming desert plants, continuing all spring. 

Cacti : — 

Cereus engelmanni. Hedgehog cactus. A cluster of spiny 
short stems about the size and shape of cucumbers. 
Flowers very handsome, large, cup-shaped, bright rose- 
purple with plumy green stigma. Blooms in mid-spring. 

Cereus giganteus. Saguaro, Pitahaya. The giant cactus, 
common on the Arizona desert hills and found sparingly 
in California adjacent to the Colorado River. It is 
a tall, fluted column up to 60 feet high, usually with 
similar vertical offsets for branches. Flowers large, 
white: fruit crimson, edible. Blooms in mid-spring. 

Echinocactus cylindraceus. Barrel cactus. Nigger-head, 
Biznaga (or Viznaga). A large, cylindrical, ribbed 
cactus up to 6 feet high (globular when young) cov- 
ered with long curving spines. Flowers greenish yellow, 
cup-shaped, in a circle on the top. Blooms in mid- 
spring. 

Mamillaria tetrancistrus. Pincushion, Strawberry, or 
Fish-hook cactus, Chilito. A small, round cactus, usually 
1 or 2 inches in height and diameter, with a fuzz of fine 
white spines and a longer sharply hooked black one 
in the centre of each tuft. Flowers fleshy, lily-like, of 
rich claret color: fruit scarlet, finger-shaped, edible. 
Blooms in late spring. 




THE BIZ.N'AGA, A STRANGE INHABITANT OF THE 
GARDEN OF THE SUN 



Noticeable Plants 59 

Mamillaria sp. Like a larger growth of the foregoing, 
but somewhat irregular in shape and with waxy-white 
flowers. Blooms in late spring. 

Opuntia basilaris. A flat-lobed, grayish cactus, velvety- 
looking, without noticeable spines but set with myriads 
of minute prickles. Flowers very handsome, large, cup- 
shaped, cerise, set in row on edge of lobe. Blooms in 
mid-spring. 

Opuntia bigelovii. Cholla. A plant up to 6 feet tall, 
branching in stumpy arms, the whole plant densely 
clad with greenish white spines. The older parts turn 
almost black. The joints detach very easily and litter 
the ground. Flowers greenish white. Blooms in mid- 
and late spring. 

Opuntia chlorotica. Prickly pear, Indian fig. Nopal. The 
common flat-lobed cactus of the coast, found also on 
the desert mountains. Flowers pale yellow, sometimes 
with reddish tinge, set in a row on edge of lobe: fruit 
dark red, edible, but covered with fine prickles. Blooms 
in mid-spring. 

Opuntia echinocarpa. Deer-horn cactus. A very branch- 
ing cactus up to 5 feet high, the joints pale green, very 
spiny though less so than O. bigelovii. Flowers greenish 
with bronzed look outside. Blooms in mid-spring. 

Opuntia ramosissima. Similar in habit to 0. echinocarpa 
but with much slenderer stems and fewer but stronger 
spines. Flowers small, brown. Blooms in late spring. 

Cassia armata. A low bushy plant with handsome yellow 
flowers, found in the desert mountains, but rare. Blooms 
in mid-spring. 

Centaurea melitensis. Star thistle, Jocalote. A small, 
usually single-stemmed plant a foot or so high, with 
narrow gray-green leaves. Flowers small, yellow: 
flower-heads very prickly. Blooms in »mid-spring and 
summer. 

Cercidium torreyanum. Palo verde, Lluvia de oro. A tree 
up to 30 feet high, noticeable for the smooth green 
bark of the entire tree. Foliage small, scanty, and 



60 Our Araby 

short-lived, so that the tree is usually bare: the twigs 
bear short thorns. Flowers profuse, bright yellow: 
fruit a pod. Blooms in mid-spring. 

Chilopsis linearis. Desert willow (not properly a willow 
but belonging to the Bignonia family.) A small, 
willow-like tree, up to 20 feet high, usually found in 
washes. Leaves narrow: flowers handsome and plenti- 
ful, white marked with lilac and yellow, fragrant; fruit 
a pod, very long and narrow, remaining on the tree 
after the seeds have fallen. Blooms from mid-spring 
to autumn. 

Chorizanthe brevicornu. A small, leafless, yellow-green 
plant, resembling the dry yellow moss sometimes found 
on pine trees. Flowers inconspicuous. 

Coldenia plicata. A hardy-looking, mat-like plant with 
small, deeply-veined, dark green leaves and tiny white 
flowers. Blooms in mid-spring. 

Croton californica. One of the commonest desert plants. 
A thin bush 2 or 3 feet high, with many slender 
straight stems and few light-gray oval leaves. The 
plant gathers into a goblet-shaped tuft as it dries. 
Flowers small, yellowish. Blooms from late spring to 
late summer. 



Dalea: — the genus has been re-named Parosela, q. v. 

Datura meteloides. Jimson weed, Tolguache (or Toluache) . 
A rank-growing plant 2 or 3 feet high, common on 
both coast and desert, with large, coarse, dark-green 
leaves and very large, white or pale lilac, trumpet- 
shaped flowers that open in the evening. Blooms from 
spring to autumn. 

Dithyrea californica. A small coarse-leafed plant found in 
sandy soil usually about bushes. Flowers small, fra- 
grant, of four white petals. Blooms in early spring. 

Encelia californica. A stiff', bushy plant with dark-green 
leaves and brittle, woody stems, common on and near 
the base of desert mountains. Flowers bright yellow, 



NOTIfEARLE Pt.ANTS 61 

on straight stalks that project well above the rest of 
the plant. Blooms in mid-spring. 

Encelia farinosa. Incense bush, White brittle bush, Yerba 
de incienso. One of the commonest of desert plants in 
the neighborhood of mountains, in form a compact 
rounded bush 2 to 3 feet high. Leaves silver-gray, 
firm in texture: flowers like those of E. calif ornica. 
The plant exudes drops of amber-colored gum. Blooms 
in mid-spring. 

Ephedra californica. Desert tea, Canutillo. A shrub 2 to 
3 feet high, entirely composed of straight, smooth, dark- 
green stems without leaves. Flowers inconspicuous. 

Eremiastrum beUioides. Desert star. A small prostrate 
plant, hardly noticeable except for its pretty, daisy- 
like flowers, borne on radiating horizontal stems. 
Blooms in mid-spring. 

Eremocarya micrantha. A small, slender herb with small 
linear leaves and tiny white flowers. It dries to a 
whitish, woolly-looking little plant that is greedily 
eaten by horses. The root yields a bright madder 
stain. Blooms in early spring. 

Eriodictyon tomentosum. Yerba santa. A bush 5 or 6 feet 
high, found in carious, with narrowish. gray-green, 
woolly leaves and clusters of lavender funnel-shaped 
flowers. (It is the coast species, E. glutinosum, or 
E. californicum, with smooth, dark-green, sticky leaves, 
that was so highly valued for its medicinal properties 
by the Spanish Calif ornians.) Blooms in late spring. 

Eriogonum inflatum. Bottle plant. Desert trumpet. A plant 
up to 3 feet high, with a few slender, straight, strag- 
gling stems that end in elongated swellings. Leaves 
heart-shaped, growing only at base: flowers small, 
yellowish. Blooms in mid-spring. 

Eulobus californicus. A slender, straight, spindling plant, 
a foot or so high, with small yellow flowers and very 
narrow straight seed-vessels. Blooms in late spring. 

Euphorbia polycarpa. Rattlesnake weed, Golondrina. A 
flat-growing, mat-like plant with radiating reddish stems 



62 Our Araby 

and small, roundish, bronze-green, white-edged leaves. 
Flowers very small, white or pinkish. Blooms in late 
spring. 

Fagonia calif ornica. A low, open-growing plant found on 
rocky desert hillsides, with hardly noticeable leaves 
but many pretty, star-shaped, pale magenta flowers. 
Blooms in mid-spring. 

Ferns: — These are naturally rare in desert regions, and are 
found only along the bases of the mountains, where 
falls the greater part of the little rain that occurs in 
this arid territory. Besides those named there are a 
few others which are very rarely found. 

Cheilanthes viscida. Lip fern. Fronds elongated, dark 
green, very much dissected, and covered with a sticky 
secretion. Found usually in crevices of the rocks in 
caiions. 

Notholaena cretacea. Cloak fern. Fronds triangular in 
outline, moderately divided, and thickly coated with 
a white powder. When dry they roll up into brittle 
balls, but when rain comes they unroll and resume 
life. This and the species next named usually grow 
under the edges of rocks and boulders on hillsides, or 
on the sides of canons. 

Notholaena parryi. Cloak fern. Fronds elongated, rather 
narrow, pinnately divided, the upper surface densely 
clothed with whitish hairs, the lower brown and woolly. 

Fouquieria splendens. Candle wood, Ocotillo. A unique 
plant composed of a number of long gray thorny canes 
diverging at ground: usually 6 or 8 feet high but 
sometimes double as much or over. Leaves small, dark- 
green, and short-lived: flowers scarlet, tubular, in a 
long spike at ends of canes. Blooms in early spring, 
or at any time when sufficient rain has fallen. 

Franseria dumosa. Burro-weed. A stiff, brittle, rounded, 
gray bush, common on and near the base of desert 
mountains. Leaves small, gray-green: flowers yellowish, 



Noticeable Plants ^^ 

in close spikes. The plant has a strong, somewhat 
turpentiny smell. Blooms in mid-spnng. 

Grasses: — 

Cynodon dactylon. Bermuda grass. Not properly a desert 
grass but has become established in the irrigated areas. 
It is 'bright green and close-growing, with small, pointed 
leaves. It makes good emergency forage. 
Distichlis spicata. Salt grass. A low-growing, pale green 
or gray grass, leaves in double rank, herring-bone style. 
It is very common, forming a close sod on moist, and 
especially on alkaline, soils. Animals will eat it when 
hard pressed. 

Epicampes rigens. Basket grass, Zacaton. A tall, rigid, 
slender-stemmed, pale green grass forming large tus- 
socks 2 to 4 feet high. It grows among rocks near 
streams, and on dry hills, and though poor fodder is 
valued by Indian women for basketry purposes. 
Orrzopsis membranacea. Sand grass. A small, tussocky 
grass with slender stems 6 to 12 inches long, leaves 
bright green. It is found in sandy soil and makes 
good forage; also is valuable to the Indians for its 
edible seeds. 

Panicum. urvilleanum. A strong, coarse grass with rather 
stiff pale green leaves a foot or more long, it grows 
in loose dry sand, and has little, if any, forage value. 
Pleuraphis ngida. Blue-stem, Galleta. A coarse-, almost 
woody-stemmed, stiff grass growing in arge dense 
clumps 2 to 4 feet high, and in the driest of soils. Ihe 
stems appear dry and dead except at the tips, which 
are pale bluish green. It is an excellent forage-plant. 
Sporobolus airoides. Zacaton. A coarse, stiff bunch-grass 
2 or 3 feet high, flowering in loose, spreading panicles. 
Tridens pulchella. A low, tufted grass 2 to 6 inches high, 
common on dry hills and mesas, often among rocks, 
wirsmall dense panicles of blossom in which the tip 
of the flower-bracts are tinged with purple. It has 
practically no forage value. 



64 Our Araby 

Hesperocallis undulatus. Desert lily, A jo. A true lily, 
with narrow, ribbony, crinkle-edged leaves lying flat 
at the base of the straight flower-stem, which is about 
2 feet high. Flowers 3 or 4 inches in diameter, fra- 
grant, white with green veining on back of petals, 
several to a stem. Blooms in mid-spring. 

Hibiscus denudatus. A shrub 1 or 2 feet high, with scanty 
gray-green leaves and large, handsome flowers, white 
with dark purple "eye." Blooms in late spring. 

Hoffmanseggia microphylla. A tall, loosely-growing plant 
found in dry desert caiions. Usually a number of the 
slender cane-like stems grow in a clump together. 
Leaves twice compound, of numerous minute leaflets: 
flowers yellow, in an open elongated cluster. 

Hofmeisteria pluriseta. A smaU bushy plant growing in 
the crevices of rocky cliffs, the stems slender but woody, 
and the leaf-blades like a flattened tip on the leaf-stems. 
Flowers in small heads, abundant but not showy. 

Hymenoclea salsola. Salt bush. A common, large, grayish 
bush with small, narrow leaves. Flowers very small, 
greenish, in profuse clusters at end of twigs. Blooms 
in late spring. 

Hyptis emoryi. Lippia. A tall bush of the lower moun- 
tain slopes, up to 10 feet high, with rather straight 
stems usually branching from the ground. Leaves gray- 
green: flowers small, numerous, lavender colored, in 
loose spikes. The leaves and blossoms have a lavender- 
like smeU. Blooms from mid-spring to autumn. 

Isocoma acradenia. A small shrub with narrow, dark-green 
leaves and small, yellow flowers; common and widely 
distributed. Blooms in early spring. 

Isomeris arborea. Bladder-pod. A vigorous, ill-smelling 
shrub 4 to 8 feet high, with light-green, triply-divided 
leaves and clusters of showy, yellow flowers. The seed- 
vessel is a large pale-green pod. Blooms from earliest 
to late spring. 

Krameria parvifolia. A common bush of the lower moun- 
tain slopes, 2 feet or so high, with few, inconspicuous 



Noticeable Plants 65 

leaves and purplish gray, much-interlaced stems and 
twigs. Flowers deep claret color: seed-vessels small, 
round, prickly. Blooms in mid- and late spring. 

Larrea glandulosa. Creosote bush, Greasewood, Hediondia. 
The commonest and most widely distributed shrub of 
the desert, growing up to 12 feet high, in strong, some- 
what brittle stems diverging from the ground. The 
branches and twigs are regularly marked with rings. 
Leaves small, glossy, bright dark green, sticky, with 
strong tarry odor: Howers profuse, bright yellow, ma- 
turing to small, round, woolly seed-vessels. Blooms from 
mid-spring to mid-summer. 

Lycium andersonii. A strong bush usually 4 or 5 feet high, 
but in open desert a low patch of stiff intertangled 
stems. Leaves small, gray: flowers few and small, 
tubular, pale lilac: fruit a small, transparent, edible 
(but insipid) red berry. Blooms in mid-spring. 

Malvastrum rotundifolium. Five-spot. A small, upstanding, 
hairy plant, often branching, with roundish leaves and 
handsome cup- or globe-shaped flowers of pale lilac 
with a carmine spot at base of each of the five petals. 
Blooms in late spring. 

Martynia proboscidea. Elephant's trunk. Devil's claw. A 
rank, weedy plant, not common, with large, roundish 
leaves and a few handsome flowers, white with yeUow 
and purple markings. The seed-vessels are dispropor- 
tionately large, from 6 to 10 inches long, curved and 
tapering, splitting as they dry into two long, springy 
horns connected at base. Blooms in summer and into 
autumn. 

Mentzelia involucrata. A plant of the open desert, a foot 
or more high, with thistly-looking, gray leaves and very 
handsome, large, satiny flowers, white or creamy with 
fine vermilion pencilling. Blooms in mid-spring. 

Mirabilis aspera. A small, bushy plant with slender 
branching stems and grayish leaves, found near the 
base of mountains. Flowers white, primrose-like, open- 
ing at evening. Blooms in late spring. 



66 Our Araby 

Mohavea viscida. A small, hairy plant with straight, usually 
single stem and narrow leaves. Flowers large, deep 
cup-shaped, satiny, greenish-creamy with small purple 
dots: petals saw-edged. Blooms in mid-spring. 

Noma demissum. A pretty little mat-like plant, sending 
out spoke-like arms at ends of whicli are small carmine 
flowers. Blooms in mid-spring. 

Navarretia virgata. A small, dried-out looking plant of the 
open desert. Leaves inconspicuous: flowers numerous, 
pale bright blue. The last of the noticeable spring 
flowers, continuing into early summer. 

Nicotiana bigelovii. Coyote tobacco. A many-stemmed 
plant, 1 to 2 feet high, with dark-green leaves and 
white, narrow-tubular flowers. Blooms midsummer to 
autumn. 

Nolina parryi. A yucca-like plant of dry mountain-sides, 
not common. Leaves long, narrow, spiky, bluish green: 
flowers whitish, in a compact elongated cluster 2 or 3 
feet long, on a tall stem rising from the centre of the 
sheaf of leaves. Blooms in mid-spring. 

Oenothera gauraeflora. A small plant with straight, stiff, 
usually single stem bearing a cluster of small pinkish 
flowers. The bark is white and shreddy and the seed- 
vessels tongue-like and curved. Blooms in late spring. 

Oenothera pallida. Sun-cups. A slender-stemmed plant 
with rather narrow, pointed and toothed leaves. Flowers 
bright yellow: seed-vessels curly with double twist. 
Blooms in mid- and late spring. 

Oenothera scapoidea. A small plant with single stem 6 to 
8 inches high, and a cluster of little pinkish flowers. 
One of the earliest spring flowers but blooms on into 
early summer. 

Oenothera trichocalyx. Evening primrose. Yerba salada. 
A low, strong, rather spreading plant with large, rather 
narrow, grayish green leaves and very large fragrant 
flowers, white (pink when faded) with sulphur-yellow 



Noticeable Plants 67 

centres, opening at night. Blooms in mid- and late 
spring. 
Olneya tesota. Ironwood, Palo fierro (or hierro.) A trim 
tree, up to 20 feet high, with thorny twigs and grayish 
green leaves composed of many leaflets. Flowers dull 
blue, like small pea-blossoms: fruit a pod. Blooms in 
early summer. 

Palajoxia linearis. A common, straggling plant of many 
slender stems up to 3 feet high. Leaves few, narrow, 
dark gray-green: flowers lavender or pinkish, tubular, 
with long calyx. Blooms almost all the year. 

Parosela (formerly Dalea) calif ornica. A stiff, woody bush, 
up to 3 feet high, with clear yellowish bark. Leaves 
small, gray, narrowly divided: flowers plentiful, resem- 
bling pea-blossoms, dark bright blue. Blooms in mid- 
spring. 

Parosela {formerly Dalea) emoryi. Dye-weed. A gray, 
weedy bush 2 or 3 feet high, easily identified by the 
orange stain which the flower-heads leave on hands 
or clothing. Leaves small, composed of several leaflets: 
flowers tiny, purple, in small close clusters. Blooms 
mid-spring to late summer. 

Parosela (formerly Dalea) mollis. A small, grayish plant 
with much-divided leaves and tiny, rosy-purple flowers 
in woolly-looking clusters. Blooms in late spring and 
early summer. 

Parosela (formerly Dalea) schottii. A large, rather thorny 
bush, up to 6 feet high. Leaves very narrow, dark 
bright green: flowers resembling pea-blossoms, dark 
brilliant blue. Blooms in mid-spring. 

Parosela (formerly Dalea) spinosa. Smoke-tree, Indigp- 
bush. A small tree, up to 15 feet high, common in 
washes. Practically leafless, the tree is a mass of whit- 
ish spiny twigs. Flowers small but very abundant, 
resembling pea-blossoms, dark brilliant blue. Blooms 
in early summer. 

Pectis papposa. Chinch-weed. A low, small, rounded 
plant, vividly green, with bright yellow flowers. It has 



68 Our Araby 

a strong, rather unpleasant smell. Blooms throughout 
summer. 

Perityle emoryi. A small plant found growing among 
rocks. Flowers white, daisy-like. Blooms in mid-spring. 

Petalonyx thurberi. Sandpaper-plant. A low, rounded, 
whitish bush with a peculiar roughness to the touch. 
Leaves small, light-green, scaly: flowers profuse, light 
yellowish green. Blooms in late spring. 

Phacelia campanularia. Canterbury bell. A small, usually 
single-stemmed plant, with roundish, rather hairy leaves 
and large, deep-purple, bell-shaped flowers. Found (on 
the desert) only in caiions or near water. Blooms in 
mid-spring. 

Phacelia sp. Wild heliotrope, Vervenfa. A straggling, soft- 
stemmed, rather hairy plant, up to 4 feet high, with 
small, compound leaves and profuse, heliotrope-blue 
flowers in curling clusters. Blooms early to late spring. 

Philibertia linearis. Twining milkweed. A strong creeper 
found on willows or other strong supporting plants, 
growing up to 6 or 8 feet high. Leaves few and grayish; 
flowers pale lavender, in a close rosette. Blooms in 
mid-spring. 

Phoradendron calif ornicum. Mistletoe. A parasite very 
common on the niesquit and other leguminous desert 
trees. It is leafless, but has numerous small pink or 
white berries. 

Phragmites communis. Carrizo. A reed-like grass or cane, 
up to 10 feet high, with long, narrow leaves, found in 
damp places on the open desert. 

Pluchea sericea. Arrowweed, CachaniUa. A straight- 
growing, cane-like plant, up to 10 feet high, abundant 
in damp places both in caiions and on open desert. 
Leaves gray, narrow, willow-shaped: flowers small, 
clustered, dull pinkish purple. Blooms in midsummer. 

Prosopis glandulosa. Mesquit. A wide-branching, thorny 
tree, up to 20 feet high, found singly or in thickets. 
Leaves of many leaflets, resembling small leaves of the 
pepper-tree: flowers yellowish "spikes," (like pussy- 



Noticeable Plants ^^^ 

willows) : fruit long, narrow pods, in clusters. Blooms 
in late spring. 

Prosopis pubescens. Screwbean mcsquit, Tornillo. A 
smaller and slenderer tree than the foregoing, favoring 
alkaline soil. Leaves and flowers similar to the above, 
but somewhat smaller: fruit twisted pods, like screws, 
in clusters. Blooms in late spring. 

Prunus eriogyna. Wild apricot. A large, branching, thorny 
bush up to 8 feet high, found in some desert canons. 
Leaves small, bright light green; flowers numerous, 
white, like small plum blossoms: fruit reddish yellow 
when ripe, with a small quantity of sweetish pulp. 
Blooms in early spring. 

Psathyrotes ramosissima. A low, compact, rounded plant 
with light-gray leaves and small, yellow flowers. Blooms 
in late spring. 

Pnrshia tridentata. Bitter-brush. A strong, woody bush 5 
or 6 feet high, with a casual resemblance to the com- 
mon creosote bush (Larrea) but rare. Flowers bright 
yellow. Blooms in late spring. 

Rhus ovata. Sumac, Mangla. A large, compact, roundish 
bush or small tree, native to coast regions but some- 
times found in or near desert canons. Leaves dark 
bright green, glossy, suggesting those of the laurel: 
flowers white or pink, profuse, in very close clusters: 
fruit a reddish sticky berry. Blooms in late spring. 

Salazaria mexicana. Bladder-bush. A roundish bush, up 
to 3 feet high, rather rare. Leaves few and small, gray: 
flowers showy, white and purple; the calyces become 
inflated and look like little round bladders. Blooms 
in early summer. 

Salvia carduacea. Thistle-sage. A thistly-looking plant a 
foot or so high, with large, prickly, grayish leaves and 
handsome light-purple flowers in round-headed clusters. 
Blooms in late spring. 

Salvia columbarieae. Chia. A small plant a foot or so 
high, usually with a single stiff stem rising from a 



70 Our Araby 

few deeply-cut leaves and bearing one or more clusters 
of small purple flowers closely grouped in rings. 
Blooms in mid-spring. 

Sesbania macrocarpa. Wild hemp. A straight, slender, 
spindling plant, up to 8 feet high, found in damp 
ground in Imperial Valley and near the Colorado 
River. Flowers yellow, pea-like. Blooms in mid- and 
late summer. 

Simmondsia calif ornica. Goat-nut, Quinine-plant. A strong 
shrub, up to 6 feet high, with gray-green leaves some- 
what like those of tlie manzanita. Flowers whitish, 
inconspicuous: fruit a small, brown, edible nut with 
smooth, pointed husk. Blooms in mid-spring. 

Sphaeralcea ambigua. Wild hollyhock. A loose-growing 
plant, up to 3 feet high, with grayish stems and leaves. 
Flowers numerous and striking, of a peculiar light- 
vermilion color. Blooms in midspring and early summer. 

Stephanomeria exigua. A low, slender-stemmed plant bear- 
ing a white starry flower something like that of the 
single pink. Blooms in mid-spring. 

Stillingia annua. A very small but hardy-looking plant with 
stiff, saw-edged, light green, upright leaves. Flowers 
inconspicuous. 

Suaeda ramosissima. A common, loose-growing bush of the 
open desert, 3 or 4 feet high, with very slender, bright- 
green, juicy stems that give a pink stain on being 
crushed. Leaves and flowers inconspicuous. 

Trichoptilium incisum. A small, almost white plant, very 
woolly, with small, composite, yellow flowers. Blooms 
in early summer. 

Washingtonia filifera. Fan palm. The native palm of the 
desert, found in many canons and occasionally in the 
open desert, though never in dry soil. Up to 70 feet 
high. Fronds light-green, with stringy filaments: flowers 
small, creamy, in long, drooping clusters: fruit a small 
hard berry, black and sweet when ripe. Blooms in 
early summer. 



Noticeable Plants 71 

Yucca brevijolia. Joshua tree, Yucca palm. A tree-yucca, 
up to 30 feet high, with stiff, strong arms and tufts 
of blade-like leaves, found in certain mountain and 
high mesa localities. Flowers whitish, bell-shaped, in 
large clusters, rather ill-smelling: fruit a short, thick 
pod which remains closed when mature and dry. 
Blooms in early spring. 

Yucca mohavensis. A small tree-yucca, somewhat branch- 
ing, with tufts of very long, dagger-like leaves, found 
in similar localities to those inhabited by the foregoing. 
Flowers also similar: fruit a large blunt pod which 
becomes soft and edible when ripe. Blooms in late 
spring. 

Yucca whipplei. Spanish bayonet, Quijote. The common 
yucca of the coast mountains, with a very large spike 
of creamy, bell-shaped flowers on a tall, straight stalk 
rising from a sheaf of long, stiff, spiky leaves. Fruit 
becomes hard and splits open when ripe. Blooms in 
late spring. 



VIII. CLIMATE AND HEALTH 

EARLY one morning in April a few years ago 
a party of four, of whom I was one, were 
leaving Beaumont for Palm Springs. We had 
come from the coast, two of my friends driving in a 
camp-wagon, the other on horseback like myself. 
This was our fourth day out. 

The weather was cold and cloudy as we left 
Beaumont, and a dash of rain spattered us as we 
raced through Banning, six miles on our road. It 
looked as if more were coming, so we who were 
on horseback halted a moment on the edge of town 
and put our ponchos on. From here we had a 
twelve mile straight-away stretch down to the 
Whitewater Ranch. The clouds hung heavy and 
low on the great mountains to right and left, and 
at our two thousand feet of altitude we looked out 
from under the stormy canopy as from beneath a 
hood. The effect was highly theatrical. Below and 
far ahead, at the foot of the hollow scoop of the 
pass, lay a pale golden land, shimmering in sun- 
light under a sky of summery blue. It was like 
magic, or a dream, and we gazed with all our eyes: 
but on the moment an icy blast rushed down from 
Grayback and lashed us with a storm of hail. This, 
anyhow, was no dream. Hastily we mounted and 
dashed forward; but for an hour as we galloped 
down the pass we were alternately thrashed on the 



Climate and Health T3 

back with chilly rain and pelted liberally with 
hail: while all the time the golden land stretched 
away before us, smiling lazily in the sun. Suddenly, 
a mile or two below Cabezon, we rode out into 
glorious warmth. The rest was pure enjoyment. 
We lunched in pleasant shade of a desert willow at 
Wliitewater Point and by early afternoon were at 
Palm Springs receiving a good Scots welcome from 
our old friend Doctor Murray. That night we 
stretched out luxuriously under the flowering gre- 
villeas of the Brooks House, bathed in moonbeams 
and odor of orange-blossoms, lulled by the soft 
clatter of palm-fronds and an occasional somnam- 
bulistic outbreak from the night-herons roosting in 
the cottonwoods near the spring. 

I have related this by way of illustration. It is 
an incident which could be duplicated a score of 
times any winter or spring. Day after day we resi- 
dents and visitors of Our Araby may sit snugly in 
the sun, watching, like a show, the gloomy or angry 
moods of the Cloud King in his mountain fastnesses 
over San Bernardino, San Jacinto, and Santa Rosa, 
and rubbing our hands over the contrast. Night 
after night we may lie out under a full hemisphere 
of stars, breathing air which Professor Van Dyke 
properly names "the finest air on the continent," 
with no thought of rheumatic or neuralgic imps 
lurking in fog or dew. Morning after morning we 
may wake to see San Jacinto's flank of dusky red 
turn suddenly to a mystery of rosy loveliness as the 
sun flashes up over the eastern wall of the valley 



74 Our Araby 

— a thing which, though experienced a thousand 
times, I can never see without a feeling of being 
enchanted, or about to turn into a Maxfield Parrish. 
But now to be more specific, for I wish to guard 
against the danger that lurks in "glittering gen- 
eralities." Figures, as regards climate, do not tell 
everything, but they serve for a skeleton, and Gov- 
ernment statistics are reliable, if nothing else. Here, 
then, are the U. S. Department of Agriculture's 
records of rainfall and temperature for a recent 
series of years: (the official figures for the succeed- 
ing years are incomplete.) The data are for Palm 
Springs Station, six miles from the village, and 
therefore are not exact for the latter point: but 
they will serve fairly. 

AVERAGE MONTHLY TEMPERATURES AT PALM SPRINGS 
STATION, YEARS 1907 TO 1915 INCLUSIVE 
Jan. Feb.MarchApl. May June July Aug. Sept. Oct. Nov. Dec. 
Highest. 77 80 90 96 104 112 113 112 107 98 87 76 
Lowest.. 31 .37 4.5 52 56 64 73 73 67 55 42 33 
Mean... 53 55 63 69 73 84 90 90 84 73 62 52 

In the nine years the maximum temperature 
reached was 118°, in July '07 and May '10. The 
minimum was 18°, which was touched in a "record" 
cold spell in January '13: with that exception 26°, 
in December '11, is the lowest figure for the nine- 
year period, with 28° on three occasions for next 
lowest. 

RAINFALL, inches: 

1907, 4.80; '08, 3.50; '09, 5.50; '10, 3.94; '11, 4.83; '12, 5.66; 

•13, 3.88; '14, 7.87; '15, 5.71. 

(Average for the nine years, 5.08 inches.) 

It will be seen that Palm Springs' average annual 
rainfall is about five inches, which, small as it is, 



Climate and Health 75 

considerably exceeds that of localities only a few 
miles away on the open desert. Heavy falls of rain 
and snow occur on the mountain which rises close 
behind us, and we come in for the fringe of these 
storms: besides which, the mountain acts as our 
trustee in general, collecting our winter income of 
moisture and dealing it out to us as we need it by 
means of the Chino and Tahquitz Canon streams. 
(The village draws also on San Bernardino Moun- 
tain for part of its water-supply, which is brought 
many miles across the desert from Whitewater 
Creek.) Thus it arises that along with a sufficiency 
of water (excellent water, too) our normal climate 
is the dry, sunny climate of the desert. 

A remarkable range of temperature will be 
noticed in the figures given above — a natural feature 
of desert climates everywhere. (Even sleet has been 
seen at Palm Springs, but such a thing occurs only 
"once in a blue moon.") These wide variations 
occur not only between summer and winter but 
also between day and night temperatures, the ex- 
planation being, of course, the low rate of humidity 
(averaging 15 degrees) which is the usual condi- 
tion. Through this dry air the sun's rays strike 
with a direct heat like that of a furnace, which, 
even when scorching, is never debilitating: and the 
moment the sun drops, the thermometer drops 
sharply with it. This gives us a conjunction of 
warm days with cool or even cold nights, and ren- 
ders life, and even physical exertion, on the desert 
quite tolerable even in the heat of summer. Radia- 



76 Our Araby 

tion is rapid, and shade may be depended on to 
yield coolness. 

Naturally, with this condition, such a thing as 
fog is unknown. The sea-fogs of the coast are 
blocked by the high barrier of mountains (though 
in any case they very seldom reach so far inland as 
that.) Once last summer, indeed, by some meteoro- 
logical freak, a fog which, probably, originated in 
the Gulf of California, did for an hour or two 
invade Our Araby, but it ranks as a phenomenon. 
Dew also is a rarity, even with our clear night skies, 
so that sleepers-out may safely ignore the risk of 
damp. 

As for wind, such affairs as sand-storms are not 
unknown, but they seldom occur, and are not to 
be thought of as the kind of thing that overwhelms 
travellers in the Sahara. Some discomfort may be 
entailed, and, to housewives, some work afterwards 
with broom and duster; but beyond that a Palm 
Springs sand-storm amounts to a very mild adven- 
ture. Backed against friendly old San Jacinto, we 
are shielded from the worst assaults of the wind- 
demon, and we often learn with surprise from some 
one arriving in the village that there has been a 
"blow" on the unsheltered levels only a few miles 
away. 

From what has been said above it will be gath- 
ered that Palm Springs offers special advantages 
to persons suffering from certain ailments. For 
many years physicians have been sending patients 



Climate and Health 77 

here, especially for lung and kidney affections. As 
regards tubercular patients, it should be noted that 
at the time of writing there is no proper accommo- 
dation available, so that it is very inadvisable for 
such persons to come to Palm Springs unless 
arrangements have been made for quarters. It is 
hoped that before long the needs of this class of 
health-seekers will be provided for. 

Good results have been found to follow the use 
of the water of the hot spring, both for bathing and 
drinking, in cases of kidney disease. Further, it 
would be hard to find better conditions than those 
reigning at Palm Springs for the cure or help of 
nerve ailments; and here, if anywhere, the factors 
of pure air, sunshine, quietude, and healthful sur- 
roundings in general may be counted on by those 
seeking to regain or reinforce their health. 

Subjoined is the Government analysis of the 

water of the spring. 

Milligrams 
per Liter 

Metaboric Acid (B02) trace 

Silica (Si02) 44.8 

Sulphuric Acid (So4) 37.3 

Carbonic Acid (Co3) 33.0 

Bicarbonic Acid (HC03) 36.6 

Nitric Acid (N03) 0.1 

Chlorin (CD 25.0 

Iron (Fe) 1.9 

Calcium (Ca) 2.5 

Magnesium (Mg) 0.7 

Sodium (Na) 67.5 

249.4 



78 Our Araby 

Hypothetical Combinations 

Sodium Nitrate (NaN03) 0.2 

Sodium Chloride (NACL) 41.2 

Sodium Sulphate (Na2S04) 55.2 

Sodium Carbonate (Na2C03) 58.3 

Sodium Bicarbonate (NaHC03) 29.4 

Magnesium Bicarbonate (Mg(HC03)2) 4.2 

Calcium Bicarbonate (Ca(HC03)2) 10.1 

Ferrous Bicarbonate (Fe(HC03)2) 6.0 

Silica (Si02) 44.8 

249.4 

Temperature — 104° 



IX. ACCOMMODATION AND CONVENIENCES, 
AND HOW TO COME 

THOUGH Palm Springs is strong for simplicity 
our visitors need fear no hardships: indeed, 
our leading hotel is apt to prove a surprise 
to guests who come with the thought of "putting up 
with things." It is not the intention of the writer 
to advertise any of the business concerns of Palm 
Springs; but for the information of intending 
visitors it should be said that the best accommoda- 
tion is offered by the Desert Inn, while less expen- 
sive quarters may be found at one or two other 
places in the village. A number of pleasant small 
tent-houses are rented by Mrs. L. F, Crocker, and 
these again are supplemented by a few others scat- 
tered about. Inquiries regarding quarters addressed 
to the Postmaster would be handed by him to the 
person most likely to be able to suit the applicant. 
Now and then one pf the residents is willing to rent 
his or her comfortable house: in this case also the 
Postmaster would act as intermediary.* 

As for "modern conveniences" — almost the only 
item in that ever-growing category that is a genuine 

*As stated under Climate and Health, there are at present 
no regular arrangements for the accommodation of 
tubercular cases. Such should not come without 
quarters having been secured in advance. 



80 Our Araby 

necessity, viz., a piped water-system, Palm Springs 
possesses: the next in value, electric lighting, may 
shortly be expected to arrive. As yet we are free 
of the everlasting jingle of the telephone, yet have 
the really useful telegraph at command. , Daily 
train service both east and west, with its corollary 
of daily mail and news service, need hardly be 
specified: they may be taken for granted. 

To conclude: we are well served with stores: 
possess a neat church, nominally Presbyterian, in 
which services are regularly held (there is also 
a Roman Catholic church on the Indian Reserva- 
tion) : our school is creditable: we are furnished 
with the indispensable garage, well appointed: and 
the services of an excellent physician are always at 
our disposal except during the very hot months of 
the year, when the white population is practically 
nil. 

Travelers coming by train should buy tickets not 
to Palm Springs, but to Whitewater, which is the 
station at which the auto-stage meets the train. 
(Palm Springs Station is connected with the village 
only by a very poor road, not available for auto 
travel.) The distance to the village is nine miles, 
which is covered in half an hour. By road the route 
from the coast is via Pomona, Ontario, Riverside 
or San Bernardino, Beaumont, Banning, and the 
main desert road through Cabezon and Whitewater. 



Accommodation and Conveniences 81 

For mail the proper address is Palm Springs, 
Riverside County, California. 

Telegrams take the same address. 

Express packages and freight should be ad- 
dressed — Palm Springs via Whitewater, California. 



APPENDIX 

HINTS TO MOTORISTS 

[Quoted by permission of United States Geological Sur- 
vey from "Suggestions to Travellers" in Water-Supply 
Paper 490 — A., "Routes to Desert Watering Places in the 
Salton Sea Region, California," by John S. Brown: Wash- 
ington, 1920.] 

More people travel the desert now in automobiles than 
in any other way, although horses are not unknown and 
even foot travellers are sometimes seen. Low-geared trucks 
with large tires have an advantage in freighting or traveling 
very sandy roads. With an experienced desert driver the 
average car can travel almost any road that is passable for 
wagons. Without careful driving it may fail to get any- 
where on a comparatively good road. Automobile parties 
should always carry a supply of spare tires and tubes. A 
vulcanizing outfit for making patches is especially desirable. 
A tire gauge is very useful, and an air pump and a jack 
are necessary. 

Sand is the worst obstacle . . . Fortunately it is less 
prevalent than popular fancy imagines. The average road 
consists of a pair of wheel ruts; and in sandy places it is 
essential to stay in these ruts. Leave them only to pass 
another vehicle and then keep two wheels of the car in a 
rut if the sand is bad. Parties attempting to pass on a 
sandy road can usually do so by helping push the autos if 
other means fail. Wheel ruts, if fresh, are easily traversed 
even in deep sand, but old ruts or wagon tracks make very 
difficult travelling for automobiles. On such roads if a car 
gets stuck it is often possible to back up and by getting 
a fresh start in one's own tracks break the road ahead 
through bad sand. A shovel is sometimes useful in short 
stretches for cleaning out covered ruts. 

It is common practice in case of trouble in sand to deflate 
the tires. This gives the tire a greater bearing surface by 
allowing it to flatten out and increases the effectiveness 
of a car's gearing by reducing the diameter of the wheel. 
There is danger of rim cutting by having the tires too soft; 



Appendix 83 

so that no more air should be allowed to escape than is 
absolutely necessary. No fixed rule is known, but for 
Ford cars a pressure of 35 or even 30 pounds was found 
safe and always gave good results. Tires are not damaged 
by running "soft" in sand, but they should be immediately 
pumped up when hard ground is reached, or they will suffer 
rim cuts, stone bruises, or blow-outs. The tire gauge is a 
necessity for judging the safe reduction of air pressure. 

One great trouble in soft sand is that the wheels lose 
traction and spin, digging down and down into the sand. 
This is frequently brought about by attempting to start too 
suddenly. On the other hand, going too slowly when 
moving induces the wheels to spin. After a wheel has 
"dug in" it has to be "dug out" with a shovel, jacked up, 
and the hole surfaced with brush, canvas, or stones to give 
a bearing. Very effective use can be made of two strips of 
heavy canvas, say 30 feet long and 18 inches wide, for 
such difficulties. The strips must be thrust under the rear 
wheel, then laid lengthwise ahead in the ruts, and it is 
necessary to lift the front wheels and set them on the 
canvas to hold it down while the rear wheels pull. Other- 
wise the canvas is chewed up and "spit" out in the rear 
by the spinning wheels. Canvas solved the trouble of the 
worst sand for the Survey party without much recourse to 
brush or shovelling. Progress is slow, but nearly any 
bad place may be crossed in this manner. The use of canvas 
for occasional trips on well-travelled roads is seldom neces- 
sary. Most travellers, instead of using canvas, fill the ruts 
with broken twigs, brush, stones, or anything else available 
when they get stuck, but unfortunately the brush is usually 
thinnest where the sand is thickest. There are various 
devices on the market for pulling out automobiles which 
get stuck, and one of these may be a valuable part of the 
equipment 

. . . . A surplus of water over probable needs of men 
and automobiles should be provided. Oil and gasoline more 
than enough for probable needs should be taken, and it 
should be remembered that desert roads may require twice 
as much per mile as pavement. 



PENCIL MEMORANDA 



PENCIL MEMORANDA 



PENCIL MEMORANDA 



PENCIL MEMORANDA 



PENCIL MEMORANDA 



PENCIL MEMORANDA 



PENCIL MEMORANDA 



PENCIL MEMORANDA 



m^- 




ltr.l>l!()l)l( I'D UV PKRMIssiON Ol' L. s. GKOUKIIC \I. SI RVEV FROM PLATE VI. OF WATEKSUPPLY PAPER 490. 



